The New Adventure of Lara Croft
by gyikhu
Summary: Lara is forced to team up with a handsome stranger to be able to find a long forgotten artefact. Of course there are difficulties, puzzles to solve and feelings to discover. Now complete - Enjoy reading!
1. Chapter 1

**All characters except Lara Croft and Winston are created by me. This story is a stand-alone, has no real connection to any games or movies.  
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**This is my first story, so please review if you find it interesting enough to be continued. I had no beta readers, so please bear with me if my english is not perfect (I am no native speaker). If anyone is interested in beta reading the sequels, please let me know.**

Chapter 1

The mansion was perfused with light. On the long road leading up to the main entrance expensive cars were queuing, the drivers standing in small groups. London's high society gathered at the party today, just like many other nights. Always the same company, always the same faces. A lot of people were swirling in the ballroom, the ladies tried to surpass each other with their dresses, men were chatting with thick cigars in their mouths. The tables were filled with delicacies, there were hundreds of champagne glasses lined up. Waiters balanced their trays in the crowd, a string quartet played in the corner. Some people began to dance despite the fact that the evening had just started.

At one side of the room, a relatively away from the crowd a young woman was standing with a glass of champagne in her hand. She tried to avoid the few people she knew as she did not want to talk to anyone. She hated these events, but sometimes she was obliged to attend them with her social background. Despite coming from an old aristocratic family, she did not feel anything in common with these people. Having been attending the best English and Swiss schools she perfectly mastered the etiquette, yet she was totally condemned by the aimless lifestyle that most of these people were living. When others looked at her, they saw a beautiful young woman who was not really sociable. As very little was known about her, the few times she appeared on parties made her even more interesting in their eyes. Several men tried to approach her in the past, but she politely refused them all. If at one of these occasions a photo was taken of her with someone, a variety of rumours were released the next day in the gossip magazines. Aristocracy was a popular topic in London, everyone was happy to read about their private lives. A mysterious young woman was straight the cover story. She did not want to give them occasion to write about her. The less the public knew about her, the better. Therefore she did not accept many invitations and certainly did not come without any purpose that night.

As she was wondering what her the next step should be, she had the strange feeling that someone was watching her. Carefully she peered around but did not notice anyone, she only saw vividly chatting groups and dancing couples. Still she could not escape the feeling. Already early in the evening she began to feel uncomfortable, more and more annoyed by the wait. She became aware that a young man was approaching her, with obvious uncertainty on his face. Usually this was the reaction she evoked by the opposite sex, either they were too afraid to approach her, or the ones who did were mostly arrogant ones. At this moment she did not desire to be entertained. Inadvertently she sent such a glance towards the young man that made him stop and he went off to a different direction.

While the woman was somewhat annoyed by her own behaviour, someone else was very amused by it. The man was standing a bit away from her in a secluded area and had a good time watching her. He could not stand a smile watching the previous scene. For him this woman was the only remarkable thing about the party, at least until his time came. Exactly his sort of woman, tall, slim, with an emanation, which could not be overlooked. On the other hand there was a certain feeling of inaccessibility coming from her, and this combination made him very curious. Inside he had its own opinion about this company, he was not one of them. Despite the fact that she fit into the picture perfectly, something about her was different. _It may not be such a boring night after all_ - he thought.

Then he saw the person who was the reason for him being at the party. Immediately he put aside his previous thoughts, only concentrating on his work. He liked to have fun, but the task came first. Being a professional, a woman could not divert his attention, even if she was as beautiful as her. If he had time, he would find her later, if he carried out what he came for.

The host of the evening passed in front of him through the crowd. Kindly welcomed the newcomers, exchanged a few words with close friends, but his face showed that something concerned him very much. He followed the elderly man with his eyes, who very deliberately proceeded in a certain direction. He stretched forth his hand and warmly welcomed someone, who to his biggest surprise was the object of his attention earlier. He drew closer wanting to hear what they were talking.

"Lady Croft. I'm so glad you came. I expected you very much."

"Lord Crestley. You have a very nice house, I have not been here for ages."

"Yes, we have not met since..."

"I know, but let's not talk about this now" - she broke the sentence in the middle. Suddenly sadness appeared on her face.

So he was right. The man was a bit disappointed, he hoped that this woman may be different than expected, but she seemed to be just one of the ladies who spent her time at parties. The following sentence, however, aroused his curiosity again.

"Your phone call was very mysterious. You have to tell me everything if you want my help."

"Come my dear, let's move a bit away from the crowd, I would not like others to hear what we are talking." – said the old gentleman, and ushered her towards the end of the room, where almost no one was standing. They stopped in front of the double glass door leading to the terrace. It had been increasingly difficult for the man to discreetly follow them, but any information could have changed everything.

"That is why I asked you here tonight. But I still cannot leave my guests alone. Would you stay till the end of the evening, then I can also show you what I was talking about." – continued the landlord.

"If you wish, then of course I will be waiting."

A slight disappointment was visible on the woman's face. This meant a further delay, maybe long hours she somehow had to spend. The old man returned to the hall, leaving her alone. The woman could not quite decide what to do next, she was lost in her thoughts. Her eyes were fixed on the floor in front of her when the feeling of being watched returned to her_. I am getting paranoid_ - she thought. As she looked up, she realized that this time it was not her imagination playing with her. A man was leaning against the wall and stared at her openly. She had never seen him before, the black dinner jacket made him look very elegant. He looked straight into her eyes, and she found herself forgetting everything else for a moment. On the one hand she found him cheeky for feasting his eyes on her like that, on the other hand she was enjoying the attention of the attractive stranger.

Behind her she heard voices, a couple entered the room through the door from the terrace. Automatically she turned her head there to see who they were. When she looked back, he disappeared from her sight. Her eyes instinctively ran over the crowd, but he was nowhere to be seen. For a long time he was the first who goaded her curiosity.

Returning to the main hall, she tried to figure out how to spend the following hours. Some have attempted to talk to her, but after a few polite words she excused herself and went on. Aimlessly walking around she got from one end of the room to the other. Being lost in her thoughts she did not notice who was standing in front of her.

"My dear, I'm glad to see you. We rarely have the opportunity to chat a bit."

She looked up, and forcing a friendly smile on her face she accepted the greeting. Within she cursed herself of being so careless.

"Lady Paddington. I did not know you were here. What a surprise." This at least was true. The encounter with the old lady was the worst possible thing that could have happened. Everyone knew that it was almost impossible to get rid of her again. It was hard to conceal anything from her, she knew everything. If she could not find things out, she used her very vivid fantasy. Gossip magazines were bloody amateurs in comparison to her.

"You could really honour us with your presence a little bit more often, we hardly get to see you. At such a young age you should not entrench yourself so much. Tell me something."

"There's nothing to tell you, Lady Paddington. There is not much happening on the estate, I assure you. "

"I saw you the other day in the newspaper with a very handsome young man. Confide me in!"- inquired the old lady.

_Here we are, always the same_ _topic_ - the woman thought. Lady Paddington was always trying to couple everyone, or gossip about things she had no idea about.

"Believe me, I see no one." She did not really understand why she was explaining herself. In fact, she did not care what people were thinking about her till it was only about men. She knew it very well what kind of stories were circulating about her. Nobody could imagine that she lived alone, she was coupled with anybody people ever had seen her with. Her denials actually reached the opposite effect, no one believed her.

"Come, walk with me." - Lady Paddington took her arm, and they set off. Almost for an hour she could not get away from her, meanwhile she introduced her to at least thirty people, among them ten young men. When she could endure no more, she suddenly pretended to have noticed a friend in the crowd and apologized. _Why did this not occur to me before?_ – she blamed herself while trying to get the furthest away from the old lady.

She decided that she had enough of the prying questions and superficial conversations. She took a glass of white wine, and walked towards the terrace. It was a warm summer evening, she was sure spending the rest of the time outside would be nicer. She stepped out into the fresh air. The terrace must have had a nice view, but she could not see much in the darkness anymore. Walking to the banister she put down the glass. Leaving the people behind was almost a relief, she took a deep breath.

The woman was still standing on the terrace and watched the shadows of the night out in the distance. Not wanting to interfere, the man decided not to approach her yet. He was standing in the doorway and just watched her for a while. Her body had a perfect shape, the fine material of the dress nicely outlined her curves, as his eyes scanned her. Her long brown hair caressed her back as the evening breeze softly blew in it sometimes. She was wearing a light yellow evening dress with thin straps, which was unusual. Women usually liked to choose black dresses for such formal occasions, but it fit her well. It made a nice contrast to the colour of her skin. _Probably some expensive vacation_ - he thought. He was wondering what Lord Crestley wanted from the woman. How did a lady come in the picture? What did she have to do with all this? It seemed Lady Croft still had not have really much information if he understood the earlier conversation well. If it depended on him, it would remain so. It was more and more confident that he should not have got closer to the woman but he could not resist. Already having been completed his job he could have afforded a little fun.

"No one told you that staring somebody out of countenance is very impolite?" – she asked suddenly without even turning around.

"I am only enjoying the view. Every human being is attracted to beauty" - answered the man with obvious pleasure in his voice.

A small smile passed over her lips. _Oh_ _god, this is the worst pick-up line I have ever heard_ - she thought. She heard the steps when the man came closer, felt him standing right behind her.

"Simon Hanningham, at your service." The woman faced him and looked into his eyes.

"Lara Croft." – she returned the introduction. "What can I do for you that you are following me the whole night?"

"You do not use your title as I can see." – he avoided the answer.

"And what conclusion are you getting from this?"

"That maybe I had the wrong impression on you back in there.' – said Simon smiling at her.

Meanwhile he was standing dangerously closer to her, just inches separating them from each other. Lara could not understand why she let this happen at all. He emitted power, had that maddeningly confident smile on his face that she could not decide whether she found it charming or very irritating. Simon enjoyed the proximity of the woman, she looked absolutely stunning, self-confident and strong. She was standing only inches away from him and still seemed so unreachable. But he loved challenges. None of them wanted to break the gaze meaning to lose the first battle between them. They both did not know why but they felt that this was not the last time they would cross each other's ways. Suddenly, however, a loud shot broke the silence of the night. They both raised their heads toward the sound. Not far from them they glimpsed Lord Crestley on a balcony. His back was to them, so they did not see what was happening. But a moment later the old gentleman slowly sank to the floor, and behind him the murderer's face looked back at them.


	2. Chapter 2

**Thanks for your reviews. I hope you like chapter 2. I am happy about any opinions or critics!**

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The face disappeared in the darkness just as rapidly as it appeared. The guests began to show up on the terrace not understanding where the noise came from or what happened. The music stopped. A few minutes after confusion arose as people realized what had happened. Lara's thoughts were racing, immediately left for the Lord's room, trying to save what still could be saved. Unfortunately she had not much idea what the Lord wanted to show her, did not see much chance that she would find it. She ascended the stairs as fast as she could without being suspicious. Everyone was running around, there was great confusion. As she approached the old man's room, she came to a halt. The staff gathered outside the door, trying to break in. In an adjacent room, she heard one of the valet calling the police. She sensed that the situation was becoming increasingly awkward. The men pulled their weight against the heavy wooden door many times, while shouting the name of the Lord to see if he was still alive. But Lara knew it did not make any sense. Not for the first time she had witnessed a shooting. For a while she stood there and watched the happenings. When they finally managed to break the door open, the servants rushed in but only to find their employer's lifeless body on the ground. A few minutes later the ambulance and the police arrived, and they forcefully sent everyone away from the area. Lara did not want to get involved more than necessary, she reckoned she would not be able to avoid being questioned by the investigators. Unfortunately too many people saw them standing on the terrace when the incident occurred. Then it came to her mind for the first time that Simon had completely disappeared. _I wonder where he is?_ – she thought. But this was not of particular importance to her at the moment. They surely lost sight of each other in the crowd.

She was descending the stairs again when a young uniformed policeman approached her.

"Excuse me, are you Lady Croft?"

"Yes, I am." - Lara was worried that her fears proved true.

"Please follow me. The inspectors would like to ask you some questions."

_Bloody fantastic_ - she thought. At least no one knew why she was there at the party. If it was up to her, it would remain so. Certainly she did not want to reveal more about herself than she had to. There was no need for the police to start asking questions about her. The young man opened the door in front of her and let her in the room.

"Would you wait here please until they join you? There are still a few other guest to question before you. "

Lara sighed. Not enough what happened, she still had to wait for the police.

"There is a big confusion, they do not want anyone to leave the house." – he was explaining himself to her looking embarrassed.

"Of course." – she replied and smiled at him. She did not want the man to feel she was angry with him.

More than half an hour passed, when at last the door opened and two men entered in black suits. Lara's first thought was that they were not from the police. She became increasingly suspicious about the whole thing, she did not know what to think.

"Lady Croft?" - asked one of them. He seemed surprised.

Lara only nodded, trying to gauge the men standing in front of her. Her curiosity was more and more aroused. The other man, who had been in the back, came toward her, pulled out a chair beside the table and offered her a seat.

"I hope you will forgive us that we laid into you so quickly, but we want to talk to all witnesses while they clearly remember the incident." - began one of the men. "My name is Johnson, and my colleague is Kelliher."

Lara noticed that the man made no comment on where they came from or what their positions were.

"Of course I will try to be of help as much as I can." - replied the woman and sat down on the chair. The two men settled down on the other side of the table. Real interrogation atmosphere evolved. Although the interviewers were polite, Lara felt the tension in them. She was more and more certain that this was quite another story than a simply burglary, which ended tragically.

"Did you know Lord Crestley?" - was the first question.

"Not really well. I knew him remotely but I have not met him for a long time." - she leaned back on the chair and crossed her legs. Along the slit of the dress the nicely tanned skin of her leg showed.

"The other guests stated that you do not appear on parties very often. Was there any particular reason you participated in this evening? "

Lara did not show it but she was surprised about the question. The questioning was supposed to be about the murder, she could not imagine what the whole thing had to do with how often she went out. Why were they trying to make any connection between her presence and the incident? She was thinking hard what to answer.

"Every year I go to a couple of events, but this is not my favourite pastime." She saw it on the man's face that he was considering what to believe.

"Can you tell us what happened?"

"I stood outside on the terrace for some time, because I grew tired of the commotion inside the room. After a while, someone joined me. We heard a gunshot, looked up and just saw that Lord Crestley collapse to the ground."

"This someone was Simon Hanningham?"

"Yes."

"Did you know him before?"

"No, never seen him before. I met him at the party."

"Okay. We have also talked to him already." _Then_ _this is why he disappeared from my sight_ - the woman thought to herself. "Look, I cannot say more. We were quite far from them."

"But you saw the killer's face?"

"Yes. For a moment, but I did not recognize him. I've never seen before."

The other man was only listening the whole time not saying anything. He noted with amazement that this woman was sitting in front of them so calmly talking about the happenings. As if she had not even seen a murder, but they were only talking about the weather. Maybe she did not even grasp what was at stake.

"Mr. Hanningham also said the same."

"That was it. A couple of seconds later the killer disappeared. People appeared on the terrace, and I think from here you already know the story."

"You are the only two witnesses. I assure you that you are in great danger. We must take care of you in the coming days."

Lara suddenly began to panic. What are they talking about? It was important that she was able to quickly come back to the house and find what Lord Crestley wanted to show her. This would be impossible if police officers were on her trail all day. She did not want to let anyone else get the information before her.

"Thank you, but I do not need it. I can take care of myself." – she tried to convince them.

"I do not think that you are aware of the situation. These people do not joke, they leave no witnesses behind."

"So you know who they are?" Lara finally caught some pieces of information. "I would like to know if you are saying that I am in great danger."

"Lord Crestley came to us last week that someone broke into his office and he felt like being followed. Apparently we were too late, though we were close on the heels of this organisation for a long time. It is sufficient to know that they are very well organized, very dangerous. So far they left no witnesses, so I do not want anything to happen to you. I just arranged that you are moved to a safe place straight away for the next few days until we reach some progress in the case."

Lara did not believe her ears. This could not happen to her now, they could not send her to a place where she would be observed the whole day. Her mind was desperately searching for some excuse, but nothing useful came. Finally she decided that at least for the sake of appearance she would put a good face on a bad business. Maybe if they thought she agreed to the protection, she could more easily escape from this famous house. A charming smile ran over her face.

"You are right, it is really better to be careful. Thank you for caring for my safety so much." – she answered, then stood to leave. She shook hands with the two men, and then left the room, where the same police officer waited to accompany her to the car.

"That was interesting." – said Johnson inside the room. "Too bad that not everyone in the high society is so easy to handle."

"And not so glamorous." - grinned Kelliher. They both were staring at the door for a while still where she had left.

A black car with darkened windows parked in front of the house._ They could not have found anything more striking_ - thought Lara, as they approached the vehicle. The young man opened the back door for her. To her surprise, however, she was not alone in the car.

"What are you doing here?"

"I am glad to see you again, Lady Croft." - Simon Hanningham smiled at the other end of the backseat.

"Are you following me again?" - The woman began to have a bad feeling about this.

"As we both saw the killer, I am afraid you have to bear it with me for a few days." – he said apparently enjoying the situation.

"Do not tell me that we are brought to the same place! – the bad feeling was getting stronger now. She did not want to believe this was happening. This can ruin her plans of getting away and this guy will be surely very irritating if they are closed in a house. She had better things to do than entertaining some smart guy who thought that he was every woman's dream. _Although this will not happen anyway_ - she thought. At the first opportunity she would slip out of the house. She just had to wait for the darkness.

"You can imagine it was not my idea but I do not have anything against it." The grin on his face became brighter as his eyes scanned the slit of the woman's dress, which ran up till the middle of her thighs. "Especially if you wear such things at home as well."

Lara rolled her eyes and angrily looked the other way. _That's fantastic_ – she thought annoyed. The behaviour of the man did not disturb her at the party, she enjoyed flirting with him. But having been locked up in a house with him was kind of a different story. She could only hope that the place would be big enough that they would not bump into each other all the time. Otherwise the next day would be a very long one. As soon as it would get dark, she was going to return to the city anyway.

Things also did not develop as Simon anticipated. This little trip was not part of his plans either but it could have been beneficial in several ways. First, at least for a while he could disappear from sight, on the other, he would have loved to know more about the woman. _In the end this still might be a fun thing_ - he thought smiling.

The rest of the journey passed in silence, neither of them spoke. Lara looked out of the window, trying to make out in the darkness, where they were heading. Once they left the manor, they were getting out of the city. The car proceeded to the highway, and at least half an hour went by before the car veered off at an exit. It looked like they were heading south. The car was winding around for a while still before the driver slowed down. Not much was visible from the neighbourhood but it seemed that not many people live here. The few houses that could be seen off the road were far away from each other. It would have been hard to find a better place. The houses could be easily observed still were relatively hidden, it would not be easy to approach them undetected. Finally, the car turned into a doorway, and paused in front of a two-storey building.

"Please remain in the car until we make sure that no one followed us, and all is safe." - said the driver.

A few minutes later a man opened the car door, and told them to follow him. They entered the house. Inside it was nicely furnished, just like a family would have lived there. The ground floor was dominated by a large open living room, from which stairs led to the upper level. The rest of the rooms could not be seen from the hall now and Lara did not feel like wanting to see more at the moment.

"This is it." - said the man, who accompanied them. "Please feel free to use anything you find. There is a library, equipped kitchen, cds to listen to. It is very important that you do not contact anyone outside, neither family, nor friends, there are no phones in the house. It is for your own safety so please take it seriously. We will bring you some clothes and food tomorrow, till then please try to use what you find in the house. Sorry for the inconveniences Lady Croft, we have to arrange things fast. The house is observe all the time, so do not worry, everything will be fine. "

"Thank you, I am sure we will know to help ourselves." - the woman said. The man said good night, and departed. Lara and Simon were left alone in the lobby.


	3. Chapter 3

**Thanks for the reviews, good to know that someone is reading it :) There is some explicit stuff in this chapter but nothing serious in my opinion. I hope you like it.**

**Reviews and/or critics are welcome as always!  
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Lara longed for nothing else but a hot shower and a little solitude. _It has been a long day_ - she thought. Thinking that the bedrooms must be on the upper level she headed up the stairs. Simon followed without a word. She felt once again that the man was feasting his eyes on her as he went up the stairs behind her. All these years it was always the same. She was very much fed up with men who only saw her body or were after her money. Usually fate only brought her together with such people, so after a while she rather avoided meeting anyone. She did not want further disappointments. But she learned to use them, how she could easily achieve what she wanted. Men were very predictable, it was not difficult to look through them.

At the top of the stairs a corridor led to the bedrooms.

"If you do not mind I take possession of the right room I hope the house is big enough so that we do not bother each other in this little time we spend here " – the woman said.

"I thought it would be boring for you all alone." – Simon responded to the usual smile on his face.

"Believe me, I know very well how to entertain myself." – Lara said, and walked towards the room. Meanwhile she realized what he could have had on his mind after this sentence. She could imagine the bright grin on his face but did not turn around to make sure of it. "Good night!" - she said, and shut the door behind her.

"Enjoy yourself, Lady Croft." - Simon whispered quietly.

The room was not big but good enough for the purpose. Lara walked to the window and closed the curtains. At the wall there was a large double bed, which seemed very cosy. An abstract painting was hanging on the wall. The woman tried to make it out for a short while but then she gave up. She was already too tired for this. Luckily, the room had its own bathroom. After pulling off the zipper on the side of her dress she lowered the fine straps from her shoulders. The thin material slid down on her body, she stepped out of it and left it lying on the floor. She hated evening dresses. Despite her dislike she looked great in them, people who did not know her could have thought she was wearing them all the time. But the exact opposite was true for her. She went into the bathroom and started the water. After taking off her remaining clothes she stepped into the shower. For several minutes she just stood there letting the hot water caress her skin, she felt the tension leaving her muscles. She tried not to think about anything, but managed this only for a short while. She had to settle her thoughts, had to plan the next steps. Above all, she had to get back to the Crestley estate, and obtain the information. The next day will be just the right occasion to plan her escape from the safe-house. Now that she was sure that the MI6 had it hands in the matter, she felt that she got involved into something dangerous. Lord Crestley surely found some interesting if he approached her, and so many tried to get hold of it. Did the MI6 really just want to catch the criminals or were they also after the secret?

After stepping out of the shower she quickly dried herself and wrapped a towel around her. At this moment it came to her mind that she had nothing else to wear but her evening dress. She went to the cupboard and opened it. Apparently the MI6 was not prepared for a female visitor, the only thing she could use was a men's shirt, which was naturally far too big for her. However it would be good enough for sleeping considering it was a warm summer night. In fact, comparing to the English climate it was really hot. Lying down on the bed she pulled a thin sheet on herself. She closed her eyes but could not fall asleep. Several minutes went by as she was only tossing and turning. After a while she looked at the digital clock beside the bed, it showed half past two. Despite the fact that she was really tired she could not drop off to sleep. Just staring at the ceiling for several minutes she suddenly realised how thirsty she was. She decided to go down to the kitchen for a drink, at least she would not tumble on the bed. Eventually she walked to the door, when she remembered how inappropriate it would be to bump into Hanningham in her current clothes. For some time she listened if she heard any noises but there was utter silence outside. Opening the door to a crack she spied out. There was no sign of her roommate to be anywhere around. Without making any sound she walked down the stairs. The kitchen must have been somewhere behind the living room. At the bottom of the stairs she turned right, she did not want to switch on the lights and possibly awaken Simon, so she continues in the dark. Lara just wanted to turn into the kitchen when she collided with something. She was so surprised that she almost lost her balance but something held her back from falling. Then she realized that this something was rather someone. Simon wrapped his arm around her waist and pulled her tightly to himself in the darkness.

"Seems that I am not the only one who cannot sleep tonight." - she heard the man's voice. Simon's cockiness annoyed her.

"Thanks for the help, but I would not have needed it if you had not been hiding in the dark here." – she tried to escape from the embrace. "You can let me go now, I will not fall off my feet."

"I just thought it was better to be sure that you are completely in balance again." Fortunately Lara could not see the grin on his face in the dark. Simon knew that went too far, but did not care. Even if the woman was irritated, it was also a kind of reaction, it was worth the risk. Previously he only held her for a light flirt to pass time with at the party. But ever since she behaved more refusing, he was becoming more and more interested in her. _Why do I only care about things out of my reach?_ - he thought to himself.

Lara felt that the man withdrew his arm from her waist, she finally walked over to the fridge. She opened it and peered inside. The light suddenly seemed a very strong after the darkness, it took a couple of seconds that her eyes got used to it.

"I do not know how you feel but for me it was definitely worth the effort to come downstairs. Although I am not sure I will fall asleep much easier after this view. "- she heard the man's voice behind her again.

First she did not understand what he meant but then she realized it. As she stood in front of the refrigerator, the light emanating from it perfectly outlined the silhouette of the body through the loose shirt_. Damn it_ - she swore to herself. She was just about to retort something to the man, but when she looked up he was not there anymore. This was exactly the kind of situation she wanted to avoid but she ran into it. Instead of being angry though she was rather amused. Even a small smile appeared on her lips, when she walked back to her room with the mineral water in her hand.

After the incident at night Lara decided to spend the time in her room the next day. The decision was made even easier by the fact that her clothing was still rather incomplete. She hoped very much that the MI6 actually brought them some clothes, she did not want to walk around all day in the evening dress. Being bored as she was, she spent the time with reading a book she found on her bedside table. An agent finally arrived around noon and left them two boxes of supplies in the living room. Not hearing any noise in the house, she ran down the stairs and took her clothes, which were found in the box.

_Well, __that's what I call a total miss _– she realised back in her room. The elegant suit trousers and the white shirt looked strange on her. _At least it is no skirt and the size is a pretty good match_ – she thought. _I look like a librarian_ - she laughed looking down at herself in the mirror. Now that she was dressed, the only thing left was looking around in the house, how she could get out the fastest way. She descended to the ground floor and looked at the front door. The motion sensor was the first thing that caught her attention. She was sure that it alerted the agents, if anyone left the building. The same sensors were installed on the rest of the doors and windows as well. She peered out into the garden from the living room but did not see anyone observing the house. If it got dark, she would not be noticed anyway. She was better than that. The sensors would also be handled somehow.

On the way back she noticed a door that opened from the corridor. Stepping through she found herself in a garage. Of course it was empty, she did not expect anything else. As she looked around there was a dusty cloth in the back corner covering up something. It aroused her curiosity, she lifted the blanket. She would not believe her eyes, there was a motorbike underneath. It was not a new one, but looked pretty good. Why the MI6 kept something like this in the house was unexplainable. Though she assumed that those who were under protection, did not really want to escape. Her last hope was that the bike would also start up. She put the cloth back in place and went back to the living room. The other box was standing still on the table, there were mainly prepared meals in it. Cooking was not particularly one of her strengths, so she went to the kitchen, and quickly prepared two sandwiches. Walking up the stairs she remembered that the whole day there was no sign of Simon. Not that she would have missed him. In any case she found it interesting that he was so silent.

When she looked up to open her door there was a piece of paper stuck on it in front of her face: "If you do not have any other plans for today I would be happy if you joined me for dinner in the kitchen. I will cook, casual clothing is allowed. S." – she read the note. A smile run over her lips but the she quickly came to her senses. It was the worst possible timing. This was not the time for dinner invitations, she had to disappear from here. But what excuse could she find to cancel the invitation, when they were closed in there and had nothing to do. At first she thought of saying that she did not feel good but this may have been too obvious. After a few minutes Lara came to the conclusion that she could not reject the dinner, it could even be of an advantage at the end. If there is dinner, there will be surely wine. The only thing she needed to make sure was that Simon drank and she did not. Managing this would even make her get-away easier as originally planned. _Maybe it will not be such a terrible night after all_ – she thought.

In the afternoon Lara prepared everything in a bag she found in the cupboard so that she would not waste time with this later. Not that she had much with her anyway. The only thing that she always kept with her was her PDA. For this equipment she even found place under an evening dress. It needed a bit of ingenuity, but this was never a problem for her. The device proved to be very useful, many times it saved her out of trouble. It integrated phone, GPS, a permanent Internet connection and a lot of important data was stored in it. Generally she had much more equipment with her. But such as fate, she always got involved in such situation when she was the least prepared for it. There was not even a gun with her. Her dress was too thin for hiding it under.

Sharply at 7 she appeared in the kitchen where she found Simon still finishing the last moves on the dinner. He looked up at her as she entered.

"I was not sure you would come down but I am glad that you did so." - he said, and poured her a glass of wine in from the bottle standing next to him.

"I happened to have no other plans for today" she smiled back. She wanted to be charming that evening, so that Simon did exactly what she planned. She was sure this goal would not be too difficult to achieve.

"Let me accompany you to the table, m'lady." Simon pulled out a chair for her like a perfect gentleman.  
"Thank you very much." - Lara decided to play the game.

"I hope you do not have very high expectations, unfortunately our friends did not leave us a very wide supply. The best I found was the spaghetti, I hope you like it. "

"It's perfect." Somehow Lara found him cute doing this. She looked at him as he stood at the stove, and prepared the sauce. He was tall, with broad shoulders. All he was wearing was a black t-shirt and jeans that fit him perfectly. _He seems to have found more suitable clothes than me_ - she thought. His thick, dark hair was not cut completely short, being as messy as it was it almost looked organized. A slight stubble began to appear on his face. The t-shirt emphasised his muscular chest, Lara' eyes automatically wandered there.

"I'm sure that is not what a lady is accustomed to." – he said approaching the table carrying two plates in his hand. After putting down one of them in front of the woman he sat down opposite her.

"What do you think I am accustomed to?" - Lara was curious how Simon imagined her life.

"I am sure you have a lot of employees who watch your every wish. In your garden you raise roses and in the afternoon you gossip about the lords of the neighbourhood with your lady-friends."

Lara could not help laughing, even thinking about this was ridiculous. If Simon had known how far this picture was from the truth. But now it was not the time to tell him otherwise.

"You must have a very nice opinion about aristocracy. We are not all that useless I can assure you." Lara was still laughing. This way she looked completely different, so relieved and natural.

"I am pleased that I managed to entertain you a little bit." - he replied as he watched her laughing. So far he mostly saw her serious or just annoyed. He was glad that he managed to cheep her up. "So you are telling me your life is not all about party?"

"Did I look like someone who enjoyed that evening?"

"Certainly not until you met me." - Simon joked. "Why did you go there at all then? Did you know the old guy? I saw you talking to him."

"Oh right, I forgot you were spying on me." - Lara tried to avoid the subject. She did not want to talk about Lord Crestley. Why would Simon be interested in this at all?

"Do you have any idea what happened? Burglary? Or could it have been something else?"

"I do not know more than you." - the woman replied. Simon saw that she was becoming too serious again, he did not push the topic any further. Not understanding why she did not want to talk about this he was wondering if she may have something to do with the Lord. In any case he did not want to deal with this tonight.

"Excuse me, I was just curious. I think anyone would be, if someone was shot before his eyes. I hope I was not intrusive." Lara was grateful that Simon was not asking more about it. She could not really provide any replies anyway. Though she was not certain that Simon was really only driven by curiosity.

They continued the dinner, while talking about all kinds of things. Simon was not a bad company at all. Indeed he was not as a superficial man as Lara initially thought. The exaggerated politeness from the beginning disappeared, everything was so natural and easygoing. He refilled the wine, they clinked glasses.

"How about finishing the wine on the couch? It might be more comfortable there." – he offered.

The evening passed very pleasantly. Simon told many stories, he really knew how to tell them in a way that was fun and interesting, even if they were not nothing special. To Lara's surprise, she really enjoyed his company, obliviously laughing about his jokes. While leaning back she rested her head on a pillow watching the ceiling. After a while she noticed that there was silence. None of them spoke a word. Starting to feel strange, she lifted her head. Looking toward the man, she noticed that he was sitting much closer to her than before. Suddenly the man fired off a totally unexpected question at her.

"How comes you do not go out with anyone? I doubt it would be the lack of applicants."

Lara at first did not believe her ears. _Did he really just ask me about my love life?_ - she ask herself in disbelief. She decided not to give him the pleasure to admit he was right.

"How are you supposed to know that?" – she asked back trying to hide her insecurities.

"Because I can see the desire in your eyes." - he replied gravely. He leaned closer, their eyes met. For a few seconds they were only looking at each other just like the day before on the terrace. But this time Lara did not feel the need to fight against it. Deep inside she wanted him just as much as he wanted her. His hands were on her waist again as he drew her closer to him. Finally Simon kissed her on the lips, Lara did not even try to resist. She kissed back and from there on there was no turning back.

Lara was not aware how much she missed being intimate with a man, even if there were no emotions involved. Although she was a very beautiful woman, the lifestyle she chose for herself made it difficult to have a real relationship with anyone. Not to mention that men were generally not able to endure if a woman was as dominant as she. Simon, however, did not seem to be bothered by this. The kiss became more passionate, Lara felt Simon's hands on her, his body was pressed against hers, which aroused her even more. She totally gave herself to the feeling, almost forgetting about her earlier plans. As they laid on the couch she instinctively turned to the side, causing both of them land on the ground in front of the sofa. Simon groaned a bit as he landed on his back and broke the kiss for the first time.

"Believe it or not but in my room there is a very comfortable bed." - he smiled at her.

"And you want to show it to me?" - Lara teased him.

"What do you think?" – he teased back.

Lara did not have to think twice, jumped up and paced toward the stairs. She almost reached the top, when she turned around.

"Are not you coming?" - she asked, as he was still lying on the ground. "You should not risk me changing my mind" – she said with a seductive smile on her face and disappeared from sight. At that moment Simon realised what a mistake he made. He sprang to his feet, ran up the stairs, opened the door to the room, but he was too late. Lara stood in the middle of the room, holding Simon MI6 badge in her hand. The furious look on her face showed that the fun was definitely over.

"Let me explain ..." - he started but Lara did not let him finish.

"I hope you and your friends had your fun. I am sure it was a terribly difficult job for you to get me to bed." she threw the ID against him and rushed out of the room. Simon tried to grab her arm, but she pulled it away. Lara ran to her room, grabbed her bag and a few minutes later she was in the garage. All Simon could do was watching her from the window racing away with the motorbike.

As he turned around his look fell on the table in front of him.

"Damn it" – it broke out of him. "She took the map. Who the hell are you, Lady Lara Croft?"

Lara sped out of the yard, out to the street, and soon turned to the main road, which led back to London. Luckily she listened when they had come out here, she knew her way around in the area well enough. Thousands thought were racing in her mind, but most of all she was angry with herself. _How could I have been so stupid to let him so close?_ _I should have known that something was wrong, it was all set up too well_ - she blamed herself. Many times she had been disappointed by men, and it seemed that this would not change in the future. She could not believe that Simon only made use of her. _That will not happen again_ - she promised herself. Being angry and frustrated she could hardly concentrate on the road. She nearly collided with an oncoming car, although there was barely any traffic so late at night. At the last minute she pulled back the bike to the left side of the road, the driver honked out loud. How did the map she wanted to obtain so much get to Simon? What did the whole thing have to do with the MI6? The only good thing was that she did not have to get back to Lord Crestley's house. Simon even did her a favour. But who the hell was he really? Why was he there at the party and above all why did he need the map? If he had worked for the MI6, then ... It was all tangled, she did not understand anything. All she knew was that her opponents would not let go. Was Simon now the enemy too? Did she have to beware of him from now on? He was not the first who tried to cross her ways, not many succeeded. Simon would not be an obstacle either, even with the MI6 involved. Lara had to get home, then everything would be different.

The silence of the night was broken only by the noise of the motorbike. Once passed through a small place with a few houses, another sound caught her attention. It sounded like a gunshot. Suddenly the machine began to tremble beneath her. She was desperately trying to maintain control over it, but it was impossible. The bike spun around, Lara flew off it and landed hard in the roadside bushes. Then all went black around her ...


	4. Chapter 4

Slowly Lara was waking up but all she could feel was pain everywhere. There was not a single body part that did not hurt. She had no idea where she was. Feeling pillows under her head she must have been lying in a bed. Carefully she opened her eyes, her vision was clearing. Looking around, she lay in a relatively small room, the walls were white, with hardly any furniture in it. _Where am I? How did I get here?_ - questions swirled in her head but no answers came. She tried to remember what happened to her. The motorbike, the shot ... but then nothing. Her body felt weak and tired, she was wondering how long she was lying there. The single window of the room was darkened, she could not determine what the time could be. Light filtered in through gaps in the curtains. Suddenly she heard footsteps approaching the door, she raised her head. Instinctively she reached under her pillow, where she generally kept a weapon, but there was nothing there. The door opened and a man entered.

"You again?" – she asked surprised.

"Missed me?" - Simon Hanningham grinned again. "As I can see you are doing better, I was already worried about you."

"What happened? Where am I? What are you doing here? "- Lara said in a tired voice.

"You ask too many questions. I will tell everything, but first your wounds need to be taken care of." The man saw that she was in pain, it was written on her face. But Lara was not the kind of person who would have started to complain about this. Simon left the room again. The woman tried to sit up, but after a brief effort she fell back on the pillow. For the time being could not do anything else than wait. She wanted to get answers to her questions, and at present only Simon could provide them.

A few minutes later the man returned, carrying a first aid kit and another small box.

"I've got something that will help. It is very special, you will not find this in any pharmacy. These African herbs do miracles to injuries."

"I do not need your help, I can take care of myself."

"I can see this. You can not even sit up properly, do not be so stubborn. You did not let me explain before you ran away but I am not as bad as you think. You do not have to like me, but let me help you." Simon did not come any closer, he was standing there waiting for her answer. Lara was still furious with him, she did not want help from someone who only made use of her. Turning her head away she looked in the other direction. The room was totally silent for a minute. Giving in was hard for her but she knew she had no choice.

"Okay, give me that thing." - she said without looking at him.

"Look, you can hardly move, let me do this for you."

"Do not even think about it, you will not come close to me anymore!" - Lara could not believe Simon was even suggesting this.

"I know you are mad at me, but believe me, I have no ulterior intentions. We are no longer teenagers, I only want to help. I see that you are in pain, I will not importune you." Simon looked straight at her, but still did not approach. Lara was already too tired to argue, all she wanted was sleep. So she turned on her stomach without saying a word. It was hard enough not to show how much pain the movement caused her. Simon sat down on the edge of the bed and removed the blanket that covered her. The woman's body was full of scratches and blue spots, but there were no serious injuries. He made sure of that earlier. She had a bad bruise on her belly, which was certainly very painful, but it was only in muscle injury. In addition, a few deeper cuts could be seen on her arm, which had to be dressed, and a bump on her head. It could have been much worse, since she was not wearing any helmet or other protection. It was a miracle she did not break anything.

He opened the jar, and started to spread the greenish cream on the injuries on her leg. He felt the woman's body tense under his hands as he touched her. Lara held her breath, as first his touch was anything else than comforting and the cream also burnt her skin. Simon tried to be as gentle as possible not to cause her more pain than necessary. The ointment seemed to work very quickly, it must have been really something special. Lara started to relax, Simon also felt this as his hand was moving up on her body. He was almost awkwardly careful not to touch her anywhere, which would have been inappropriate in the given situation. A weak smile ran over Lara's lips as she realised this. When he was ready with her back Lara turned around. He dabbed the wounds on her shoulders and arms, and took care of the injury on her abdomen with special care. Finally, he bandaged the deeper cuts. Meanwhile, Lara was becoming increasingly sleepy, she was sure his nostrum also had a soothing effect. By the time Simon was ready, she was half asleep.

"Now sleep a few hours and you'll be much better. Then we can talk." - he hoped she still heard his words.

Lara was able to squeeze only a very quiet 'thank you' out of her.

"You are welcome." – he said but the woman no longer heard this. After tucking her he left the room. He felt that something changed in him, but he was still unsure what it was.

A few hours later, Simon opened the door a crack and peered in. Lara was already awake, but lay still in bed.

"I hope you are doing better. I'll show you the bathroom, wash off the rest of the cream of yourself, and I bring you something to eat. You must be hungry." - said the man, while he approached to help her getting up. Lara was really much better, but still angry with him. Now that the pain was almost gone, rage took its place among her feelings. She was mad at him, how he previously treated her, because she had no idea what happened to her. Actually, she did not know herself where this sudden anger came from.

"I do not need your help. Leave me alone." - she said. Not yelling, but this quiet anger was even worse. Simon was surprised by this reaction, such a sudden shift. Somehow he understood that she was angry with him, but could not get it how he deserved this refusal. Without a word he showed her where the bathroom was and walked out. He knew when to back out. Maybe if he gave her some time, she would calm down.

Lara waited until the door closed and climbed out of bed. To her surprise she could move almost without any bigger pain. The bathroom was only a few steps away, she started the water and took off her underwear, which she was still wearing. She stepped under the shower, just standing there and watching the greenish water flowing down the drain. Slowly she began to relax a bit. Next to the cabin there was a towel hanging, she gently dried herself, while she noticed a large mirror in the corner. Standing in front of it she looked at her body. The view was not really uplifting, she was full of wounds almost everywhere. _This will go away in a few days_ – she thought. It was not long ago when she was not as satisfied with her body as she was now. It took her years of hard training to reach these results. Now she was almost perfect, well-toned muscles, all the right proportions, flexible and yet incredibly feminine. She knew that most women would change with her without a word. With the towel wrapped around her she walked out of the bathroom holding her hand gently on the bruise on her abdomen.

To her surprise she found fresh clothes lying on a bed. She started to feel like an idiot. _Why was I so rude to him without any certain reason? All he did so far was helping me and that is how I thank him? I do not understand his intensions and I do not trust him but this does not mean that I need to be an asshole to him. Let us see what he has to say first_. – she thought.

The jeans and the t-shirt that Simon had left her fit almost perfectly, she was astonished that the man could guess her size so well. She sat on the bed and leaned against the head restraint. The pain was much better but too much movement still did not feel good. She hoped that Simon was not offended, and would come back. At least until it comes out what his intentions were she decided to be kinder to him from now on.

Luckily she did not have to wait long till she heard a faint knock on the door. The man was holding a tray with a plate on it.

"Sorry for being so rude to you before" she smiled at him. "I am not a morning person, you caught me on the wrong foot."

"No problem, I did not take it personally." - he smiled back but it felt good that she apologized. "I brought you some soup. Do not get too excited, it is only a conserve though. I know you are used to some better quality from me concerning food but this is all I found in the flat at the moment. I do not use it that often."

"Where are we at all and how did I get here?" Lara finally wanted to find out what happened to her. She waited long enough for the answers.

"This is my little hiding place. How do you like it?"- Simon said proudly.

"Can you be serious for a few minutes and answer me?" - the woman began to be impatient.

"All right, all right. We are in a flat in London, which I sometimes use. Nobody knows about it and it is impossible to trace it back to me. So we're safe at the moment. I do not know who these people are who attacked you but they are not kidding. You did not stand a chance with the bike."

"How did you find me? I remember that I ran away from the house and left you there alone."

"I know that you will not be happy about this but I hid a tracer in your PDA that afternoon while you were not in your room. Somehow I felt that you were hiding something."

"You are saying that I was hiding something? How did I feel when I got into your room and I came across that you are actually MI6?" - she began to get angry again against her will.

"Hey, do not be unfair to me. I think you are also not telling me everything about you. Somehow I start to get the feeling that you are not raising roses in your free time!"- Simon attacked back. He started to get tired of it that he was the bad guy. Lara just wanted to shout back something but changed her mind before a word left her mouth. As she thought about it she realized that Simon was right, he was not the only one hiding something. But she still had to find out on which side he was standing and why he was following her. He could have had the chance long ago to get away with the map when he had it. By the way ... where was the map? It was the first time it occurred to her since she woke up.

"Where's the map?" - suddenly she sat up in the bed, ignoring the pain in her side, as the thought came to her mind. "And where are my things?"

"I am sorry but whoever attacked you, they took the map. When I got to you, you were lying there next to the road. It is quite a miracle you did not get seriously hurt. Your bag was still there but the map was not in it."

"Oh, crap. Then basically that was it. This was the only clue."

"I would not be so sure." - Simon replied confidently.

"What do you mean?"

"I made a copy. I am not an amateur."

Lara was surprised, she did not expect this. It showed that the man really knew what he was doing. Otherwise why would he tell her this if he wanted to solve the map himself? Actually if he wanted to leave her out of this, he could have just kept it for himself that he has a copy. Lara started to think that maybe he was not that bad after all. Of course, this did not prove anything, she still did not trust him.

"Then finally tell me who you are and what you know about all this? What were you doing at the party?" - she was keen to know his story. It would help her to decide how much she can tell him in return.

"Look, I am working for the MI6, that is true. But I have nothing to do with those agents at the manor. They also did not recognise me and I thought it was better to play along. That is why I agreed to go to the safe house although then I still did not know that you were also involved in this. I was working several years now in Africa undercover. So please excuse me if I should have heard of you but I was not in the country. I was spending a few months off now when my boss called me that there is an issue to solve. All I knew was that I needed to get in the house and collect a map from the safe. This party seemed like the perfect occasion. What is this map all about at all? Do you know anything more? And how did you get the picture?"

"I knew Lord Crestley through my father but it was years ago that I had seen him for the last time. Not since my father died." Simon could see the same sadness in her eyes when she was talking about this as at the party. "My father was an archaeologist and explorer. After he died I started following up his researches. Lord Crestley called me, he wanted to show me something interesting. He had an impressive collection of old maps. That is how I thought it could be about something like this."

"You are telling me that you are some sort of treasure hunter?"

Lara smiled at this comment.

"Many people would probably call it like this. But I do not do it for the treasures, while the cost must be covered of course. What I find is very often too dangerous to be revealed to the public."

Simon was speechless for a while. "Gold and diamonds cannot be so dangerous."

"Let's just say that I am not really after gold and diamonds. When the Lord wanted me to look at the map, you can be sure that this is about something bigger than gold."

"And this can be kept secret?" - he wondered.

"Not easily. This is why I do not really go out. As a result of this a lot of funny stories can be read about me in the gossip magazines. Although mostly they try to couple me with all kinds of different men, because they can not imagine that a woman can also feel good alone. Only a very few people are aware of what I actually spend my time with. And I want it to stay that way."

Simon started to see her with completely different eyes. She managed to absolutely surprise him with this confession. At the moment he still had no idea how he should imagine her working. But he hoped that he would soon experience this.

"What do you know about this organization that stole the map?" - Lara asked thinking he might have more information through the MI6.

"If we assume that they attacked you. But I do not know much. They are well-organized, not much progress was made in identifying them by the MI6. As I understand they operate primarily on the black market, and are not much afraid of anything. We must be careful. What is our next step after this?"

"Our next step? What do you mean?"

"I mean that if you are interested in this map, you have to team up with me. I am sure you will need a strong hand with this."

Lara looked at him curiously. So far, it never occurred to her that there was nothing in her hands, and he probably will not be willing to give up on the map.

"And this strong hand will be you and your friends at MI6? No way. First of all I am sure there is a traitor in the agency. How else would these criminals have found us so fast? They must have got some information where to look for us. Second I work alone, I always did and I always will."

"Then good luck, without the map it is sure to be a simple affair."

Lara was losing her patience again. She cannot take this guy with her, she did not trust him, not to mention his agency. Without the map though she had no idea where to start. They had to make a deal.

"Okay, I am taking you with me, but we must agree on two rules. Do not contact anyone at the MI6, forget about them for a while. If you want to come with me, then it will be just the two of us, nobody else. "

"So far I like the idea." - he grinned.

"This is the other thing. I never implicate work and emotions. So please keep such comments to yourself. From now on we work together, and that is all."

"If you say so." – he was a bit disappointed, but he was almost certain that this was not the cue. "So what do we do then?"

"We need to get back to my place and to prepare for the journey. First and foremost, we must find out what this is about and where the map shows. I need a bit of time to get back to form as well. I think we are safe for a while now, when our opponents think that there is nothing in our hands any longer. So my house will just fine and I have the necessary equipment that we need."

"What equipment are you talking about?"

"You will see." Lara said with a confident face.


	5. Chapter 5

**Hey guys, the story goes on. I hope you do not mind that it starts a bit slow but i did not want to make it too easy for our adventurers. Keep R&R :)**

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Simon went downstairs to get the car while Lara gathered her things. It did not take very long though as she hardly had anything with her. The few pieces of clothes from the day before were left on the chair, she would not need them any longer. It was strange not to have her usual equipment with her, she felt vulnerable. But now everything would be different, she would get home and the adventure could start. She could only hope that Lord Crestley really found something, a couple of months have passed since she last had been on the road. New challenges were needed. It was true that things did not start as planned but she wanted to change this. From there on she wanted to dictate, not just drift with the tide. Reaching for the door she paused for a moment with the handle in her hand and took a deep breath. She stepped out to the staircase.

As she reached the street she looked around. Simon could not be seen anywhere. _Where could Simon be so long?_ _He said that the car had been just around the corner_ - she did not understand. The only vehicle, which caught her eyes was an old Mini Cooper but the car was so low that she could not even look into it. Suddenly the window of the car went down and Simon looked out of it.

"Are you coming or not?" he asked smiling. Lara was speechless, never in her life would she have thought that they would be leaving with this... thing.

"You cannot be serious. That is no car."

"I know it is not very lady-like but you will see that it is very practical in the city." One could see that he was even proud of the small machine. Lara had a different view of something being practical. Not that she was choosy but somehow this was not the first image that popped up in her mind when it was about cars. So she went over to the other side and squeezed herself in the passenger seat. No one could say that she was particularly tall but even for her the place was quite small in the car. She was wondering big time how Simon fit in there.

"Good to go?" - Simon asked. Lara nodded and gave him the address. He launched the engine, and rolled out from the deserted side road to the traffic. It was early afternoon, the rush hour had not started yet, but the streets of London were never empty. Simon turned on the cd player, classical music filled the small car. Lara looked around, amazed that the man was listening to something like this. Or was he just trying to impress her? No, he cannot be so childish to think that this would mean anything to her. It was not even her kind of music, she liked classical music sometimes when it matched the situation, not necessarily for driving. She made no comment, just looked out of the window. There was enough time to look around, as they were driving through London's inner city. As always many tourists were wandering in the streets, with bag packs and cameras. For a very short moment she wished her life was also that easy but then she also swept away this idea... this would definitely bore her to death - she was thinking with a smile on her face.

"I'm glad to see you enjoy the ride." - Simon said as he looked over to her. He was wondering what could have made her smile but did not ask.

"Well I definitely have time to see everything the way you are driving. Do you think we will get out of the city still this week?" - she teased him. "I know other women must be impressed by your sightseeing tour but I can assure you I have already seen everything in London."

"Very funny." – said Simon from behind the wheel. "I am sure you will also have the chance to show your driving skills one day." Lara knew she would.

More than an hour elapsed before they got out to road leading out of London. From there they did not have far to go, Lara's house was located south of the city. They turned into a byway, where the gate opened from. Simon whistled approvingly as they approached the house.

"Not bad. Is this all yours?" - he asked.

"Yes, Croft Manor belongs to my family for hundreds of years."

The house was almost a castle, with a huge garden, which was perfectly maintained. He could not even count the windows on it. From the main entrance the building stretched out long in both directions. He could not imagine how many rooms there could be in there. Driving around the fountain he stopped the car in the parking lot on the side.

Lara opened the door, they stepped into the forefront. The place was enormous, in the middle stairs led up to the top level in both directions. The arrangements appeared to be carefully sorted out, lots of antiques lined up everywhere.

"Welcome, Lady Croft." - Winston greeted them from the bottom of the stairs. Winston had worked as her butler ever since she could remember. Her father employed him, and he had been faithfully serving the family since then.

"Hello, Winston." – she greeted back. "This is Simon Hanningham. He will stay with us for a few days before we cross roads. "The second half of the sentence was said with a somehow strange intonation, Winston seemed to understand the implication.

"Of course. I prepare a guest room for Mr. Hanningham if you wish."- the butler looked inquiringly at her. Simon was wondering how often strange men would spend a few days here and if they always needed a guest room. Not that he had anything to do with it or should be interested in it, after all he hardly knew this woman. Of course he would not mind changing this situation, it would not be against his will to continue what they had started in the house the other day. He felt more and more challenged, he never met anyone before who would even come near Lara.

"Yes, the usual one please." - the woman replied to Winston, then turned to Simon. "I'll show you your room then we meet in the library. We need to start working if we still want to have a chance. Those people already have a day advance on us. We can only hope that the map is not that easy to solve...for them at least."

She started walking up the stairs, followed by Simon. _That is what I would call a déjavu_ - she thought to herself. _Next time I will let him go first_ - she knew he was looking at her again. At the top they turned right and walked down the corridor where several doors opened. After a while Lara stopped in front of a door.

"This will be your room while we are here. Winston will prepare it for you. So see you in a short while downstairs."

"And where is your room?" – Simon asked with an innocent face.

"All you need to know about my bedroom is that you have nothing to lose there." Lara said while she went down the corridor with her usual way of walking.

_So our little game is not over_ - Simon thought with a smile as he looked after her.

Lara went to her room, which was a few doors down the corridor. It felt good to be home again, despite the fact that only two days were gone since she left. She threw her things on an armchair. Of course, her private chambers consisted of more than just one room. The door opened to a spacious living room with comfortable seating to fill the space, behind there was a working corner. On the left side one could look into the bedroom, dominated by a large double bed. Naturally a bathroom and a dressing room also belonged to it. The furniture was very modern and stylish, the floors were made of expensive wood. The French high-net led to the west-facing terrace, afternoon sun penetrated the premises.

She stepped into the wardrobe wanting to wear her own clothes finally. She threw the pieces received from Simon off her and looked at the contents of the cabinet. In general, a woman's wardrobe was full of beautiful pieces, clothes, skirts, trendy things. In her case it was different. Winston grumbled a lot to her that she should wear more feminine clothes. A lady must not run around in boots. But she was not interested in these formalities, this was how she felt good. Not to mention that it would not be very practical in her work to jump around in Chanel costumes in the crypts. There were a few evening dresses for occasions like this party, but she tried to put them on as least frequently as possible. _Now I have one less_ – she smiled thinking that she left hers in the MI6 house before she run away. She chose some black canvas trousers and a tight t-shirt, organized her hair in the usual ponytail, and put on her favourite boots. _Much better_ - she thought satisfied as she looked into the mirror. _Let us start with the work_ - she was eager to look at the map, solve new puzzles, mysteries and go after artefacts - that was what she lived for.

When she arrived to the library, Simon was standing in front of the bookshelves intently staring at the collection of books. The library belonged to one of her favourite localities, Lara liked to spend her time here. It reminded her of the old times, when as a little girl she watched her father's work. Initially this subject did not interest her has greater depth, she always thought that her father was just reading and reading. That was not exciting enough for her. Then growing up she gained a deeper insight in his researches. After a time she noticed that nothing else looked interesting anymore. Thereafter she prepared herself consciously for the task, she read everything she found, started to train herself. Simon's voice finally turned her thoughts back to the present.

"Really impressive collection." - the man said when he saw her. For a moment he wondered as he looked up. This was the first time he saw her in such clothes. She appeared completely different than before, this side of her was not known to him yet. The heavy boots took the place of the slim high heel shoes, black combat trousers instead of the glamorous evening dress. In spite of everything she looked just as sexy as before, which surprised him as he usually preferred women being dressed feminine. Lara was at this moment very far from that, still she was very attractive.

"That is exactly where we need to start looking" - she said seeing Simon in front of the books. "Will you show me that map finally?" – she urged him.

"Patience, darling." - Simon teased her. But Lara looked at him in a way that told him he rather should not try his luck any longer. So he got the copy of the map out of his pocket and put it on the desk. Lara immediately leaned over it and started to examine it.

"What is this? It is a quite normal city map of Edinburgh. Although it shows the historical city, I can see nothing particular on it. Why would anyone kill for this?"

Simon also looked puzzled, he had not had much occasion to look at it before either. Lara picked up the paper from the table, turned it upside down, held it against the light but nothing worthwhile could be noticed on it.

"Are you sure that you got the right map? Was there something on the other side maybe?" – she asked the man with a slight impatience in her voice.

"This was my job and I assure you that I am good at it." - he replied with some huffiness.

"Obviously there is something wrong, no one would be interested in this. You can get one for a few pounds in any book shop. Are you trying to keep something from me?"

"We would not have lost the map on the first hand if you had not stolen it from me." - Simon retorted.

"Okay, it makes no sense to argue about this now."

Lara was angry. She was very sure that Lord Crestley found something on the map if he wanted to show it to her. Can it be that she missed something? She needed to calm down and think things over again, usually it was not that easy to solve hidden maps anyway. However, the whole thing may have been the brainchild of an old man and they searched after a non-existing mystery. Most importantly why would a criminal organization be interested in this? Were they also manipulated by something? Did Lord Crestley die for no reason? She did not know what to think.

"The only thing that occurred to me is that we could compare it to an official map. Maybe there's a difference that we did not realise." - Lara proposed and headed towards the books.

"I think I know a faster solution than books." - said Simon and sat down in front of a computer. "Do you have a scanner?

"Sure, there is one behind you."

Lara took a book of Scotland from the shelf, while Simon placed the map in the scanner. A few minutes later a high-resolution digital version appeared on the monitor. Attaching a small storage device to the machine he launched a special program. The map was loaded. Lara looked over at the monitor, and decided to quit the book walking over to Simon. Sometimes the modern technology was more effective than any book. He watched the man clicking around with the mouse, the original map of Edinburgh appeared on the display.

"Now we just have to put our version on this and the rest is taken care of by the computer." - he said proudly. "I hope the analysis will not last long."

Lara sat down in a chair, leaned back and put her feet on another. The heavy boots sagged deep into the pillow. Simon had so many questions on his mind but ultimately decided to enjoy the silence for a while instead. Only the sound of computer could be heard as it worked. Ten minutes passed by, but the result was still far. Simon stood up, walked around the table and went to the window. Impatient as he was he could not sit in front of the machine and wait. Lara also used the time to think. She never experienced this before. In general her researches lead to ancient, mystical hints. This map was completely different, however. Or Simon did not tell her everything? But why would he be here with her, if he was trying to solve the mystery alone? If he only wanted to use the help, however, it would not be logical, if he had not told her everything. The whole thing simply did not make sense ... She looked at him as he was standing facing the window. She narrowed her eyes as if trying to read his mind. It was impossible to decide what to think about him. _He does have a nice ass though_ - she thought to herself as her eyes wandered down. _Oh come on, I need to keep myself occupied before I get too pathetic._

"Tell me if you have any result. I cannot just sit here and not do anything. "- she said and left the room.

Having been walking through the whole house without any aim, Lara arrived back to the main hall. There was simply nothing she could do till the results are there, and even then it was still a question if they got any further. Right in the moment when she was thinking what she could do next, she heard the voice of Simon.

"The analysis is ready. There are some interesting things to see here."


	6. Chapter 6

Lara walked back to the library curious what the computer found out. She sat down on the same chair again, legs up on the other chair as before.

"Tell me" - she said simply.

"If you ask me so nicely." - he looked at her with a grin.

"Please Mr Hanningham, be so kind and share your knowledge with me." - she smiled back. In some way she enjoyed their sarcastic way of conversation.

"You do not need to be so formal, darling, call me Simon." - he teased back. "But enough of your childish behaviour, we have business to do." - he continued with an even bigger grin on his face. Lara was simply unable to decide if she was amused or irritated by him. No one else had this effect on her before.

"Okay, this is what we found out. Comparing the map with the official version there are two places where it differs. The two names are Halloway and Jane Murray. So I guess what this map wants to tell us is that we need to investigate these two names, although I never heard about any of them before. What do you think?"

"Interesting. So you are saying that these names actually do not or never did exist on a map of Edinburgh?" - Lara asked.

"Yes. This must be the lead that we need. So the map is not as useless after all as you thought."

"I also never heard about any of these names before in connection with something historical. But let us start and see what we can find out. I would say you continue your search on the internet and I will look in my books."

Lara went to the other desk where she already had some books lying and started to look through them. _Halloway and Jane Murray... what could this mean? What does this have to do with Edinburgh? It cannot be a coincidence that they used the map of this city._ She started her research on Jane Murray first, looked through the indexes of many books but found nothing_. Who are you, Jane Murray? And what does Halloway mean?_ - she was confused. Not that she thought that she heard of everything important in history before but she could not imagine that Lord Crestley found this interesting enough to call her. These names said absolutely nothing. She logged into the catalogue of her library and started a search in general. _Maybe it has nothing to do with Scotland at all and it is only a trap so that people did not find where to search_ - she thought. The search gave no results though. Lara looked over to the computer where Simon tried his luck but she did not have much hope that he found anything. He was too silent. If he had found anything, she was sure he would have already told her just to show that he was faster. She walked over to him anyway.

"Found anything?"

"No. I tried all kinds of combinations, but nothing useful came up. Of course, there are many hits for Jane Murray but not many of them have to do anything with Scotland and none of those with anything old or historical."

"I'm thinking that maybe the map is just a trap. It may be that only the names are important, but the city is not? Did you try without the reference to Scotland? "

"It occurred to me too, but I could not find anything worthwhile."

"It's very strange. I cannot believe that the only clue leads nowhere. Unless the whole thing is bullshit." - Lara began to doubt it that it was all leading anywhere.

"You think someone would have killed for it if it was just a joke?" - Simon could not believe that this would be the truth.

"Maybe they did not have any idea either what this was before they found it. That is, before you found it."

"What if Jane Murray a living person we should look for?" - Simon tried.

"Um .. I do not think so. Who knows how old this map is. The woman could be two hundred years old. But it is definitely worth a try, look in the phone book if you find anything."

Simon typed the name in the online phone book of Edinburgh but it gave no hit.

"So now what? We cannot phone every Jane Murray in the world." - Lara was also puzzled. "Let us continue searching a little more." – she proposed after all. She believed there was little hope that anything was found but she did not want to give up so quickly.

It was already nine in the evening when she put down the book, which was in her hands. Failed to get any closer to a solution, the names still did not mean anything to her.

"I need to clear my mind, I will be back soon." - Lara said and walked out of the library.

Lara was annoyed, she was not used to it that there was no step made forward for such a long time. After many hours of research they were almost at the beginning. There had been no advance to the solution, and currently she had no idea how this could be changed. She needed something else to divert her thoughts a little. Some physical activity, she did not want to see a book in a while, she did not want to think. She knew exactly what to do and kept resolutely in that direction. Lara opened the door to a specially designed shooting range and went to the cupboards. After thinking for a moment she took out a Desert Eagle. Pushing a new magazine in it she turned to the target line and sent a drawing showing the outline of a human as far as she could. She secured the gun, held it up at eye level, and took a deep breath. For a moment she closed her eyes, sensing the gravity of the gun in her hand. Her finger was playing on the trigger. Suddenly she opened her eyes and pulled it without any targeting. She felt a boost in her arm as the gun fired. All eight bullets were pumped in the target. With an incredible speed she reloaded again. Further three clips were emptied, she put the pent-up tension in the shooting. Often she did this if she was tensed, it perfectly relaxed her. The whole thing did not take more than ten minutes, she felt better. She pressed the button in front of her, the target was approaching along the stretched wire. She gave a brief look at the result, turned around and left the room. The human figure on paper looked like a sieve. Every shot hit it, at least ten would have been fatal. It was not wise to cross Lara Croft's ways.

About a half hour later she returned to the library. On the little table next to the sofa a tray of sandwiches awaited her_. At least one can always count on Winston_ - she thought. Being annoyed as she was, she did not even realize how hungry she became. She did not eat anything since they left Simon's flat. Lara was planning to jump on the food when Simon entered the room with two glasses of wine in his hand.

"I thought I prepared something to eat fast. We were so busy all day."

"Oh, you did this? Where is Winston? "- Lara wondered.

"I sent him to bed if you do not mind. He looked tired and I did not know when you come back."

"No, it is okay. I was just wondering, slowly you will become my personal cook." - she smiled. She found this sweet from him again, she did not know that he cares so much.

"I just thought that we could have a break and think about other things. I am confident that this will help. I can see that you are getting frustrated that we have no results."

"You are not?" - Lara asked. Indeed, he seemed to be calm under the circumstances.

"I just trust you to solve the mystery." - the man looked at her intimately.

"You are very close to crossing that line again." - Lara said as she looked into his eyes. "Do not try me!"

"Do not always try to control everything all the time. Just come and let us eat."

"You just want to seduce me." - she teased him.

"As always, my dear." – he said pointing to the place on the sofa next to him with a grin on his face.

Lara finally gave in and sat down beside him. It annoyed her to death that Simon was constantly calling her 'darling' but she could not do much against it. She just could not control what he said. But she could control her actions and she was determined to adhere to the established rules and do not let the man approach her. Again that certain self-confident smile was sitting on his face, like when they first met. _But now I do not let myself be seduced, he should not believe that he puts on that smile and everyone lies at his feet_ - Lara promised to herself. Simon offered the tray to her. The food looked very tasty, Lara took one. Simon did the same way and they began to eat. For a while they sat side by side, without a word and then he broke the silence.

"In fact, I hardly know anything about you. You make me curious."

"Curious of what?" - she was still cautious with him, not knowing what to expect. "You are not exactly an open book to me either."

"Ask me anything. But in return I also ask you a question. Deal?"

"How do I know you tell me the truth?" – Lara asked.

"Try me. How do I know that you tell me the truth? Sometimes you just have to trust people."

"I do not do this very often."

"What is it with you? So young and yet so reserved. "- Simon wondered what could be the reason that Lara was so distant.

The woman did not like the direction the conversation was heading. After such a short acquaintance she did not plan to let him in her life. This was a topic she did not want to talk about, especially not with him. She did not want him to know how much she did not trust men. Taking the glass from the table she took a sip of wine. It had a heavy, sweet flavour.

"Let us finish eating and go back to work." - she wanted to change topic.

Simon, if anything, was even more curious than before. There was this beautiful young woman alone in a big house. She told him a few things about her, but surely not everything. Apparently she was rich, but what did she live from? Was she really a treasure hunter? He felt that there was no point in forcing the issue, perhaps the time would come when she opens up in front of him.

They went back to the books and the computer. It was ten o'clock but Lara did not want to sleep with the knowledge that they were wasting precious time. But the more she strained her brain, the more it resisted. Simon did not come to anything either, even though he knew in advance that it would be the case but he did not want to contradict the woman. He knew that would not make sense. At midnight she finally surrendered.

"Let us go to bed, this will not get any further today."

Simon was barely able to resist not to tease her about her comment but changed his mind in time. He could see that Lara was very tired and not in mood for stupid jokes.

"I agree." – he said instead. "Let me escort you home." – he smiled at her. He could not stand not to be at least a bit funny.

Lara was too tired to argue. Without a word they went up the stairs together. As they arrived to Simon's room he did not enter.

"I always accompany the ladies to the door just to be sure they are safe back home."

"Very courteous. But I'm sure I arrive safely to the next door. "- she assured him.

"I insist." - Simon said and already walked further down the corridor.

Having no other choice Lara followed him. Barely a few steps later they got to her door. She hoped very much that Simon would not try to convince her to let him in or attempt to approach her. But he did not do anything like this, simply turned to her and pressed a light kiss on her face.

"Good night, Lady Croft" - he said, and walked back to his room.

Lara did not even bother to change. She threw herself on the bed and within minutes she fell asleep. Simon, on the other hand had a serious problem with sleeping. Thoughts were swirling in his head. First, he really wanted to solve the riddle, on the other hand did not want that the time with Lara was over. _It will be very difficult to leave her_ - was his last thought when hours later he fell into a restless sleep.

As a result, he woke up the next morning, as if he had not slept a minute. He glanced at the clock, I was already nine. Quickly he hatched out of bed and went to the bathroom. _A cold shower will help me wake up_ - he thought. With the towel around his waist he brushed teeth, got dressed and went downstairs. On the way to the library he stopped in the kitchen to pick up some breakfast. Of course, Lara was already sitting at the computer, with the usual resolute face.

"Good morning!" – she greeted him. "Did you have a bad night?" – she asked looking up at him.

"Is it that obvious?" - he wondered.

"If I did not know it better, I would think you had a long night out. Or did I miss anything?" – Lara teased him.

"Huh-huh. Anyway, did you find anything?"

"Not yet. But I collected all the names worth to ask, archaeologists, professors, friends of my father. I will call them and one of them must have heard about these names if they really mean something."

"Good idea." – Simon agreed.

Lara sat down on the sofa next to the phone with the list and began dialling the numbers. Simon tried to go on the Internet, while half listening to the conversation. Three hours later, Lara slammed down the receiver. Simon could imagine the result.

"I simply cannot believe this, pure madness. I called everyone who just came to my mind and no one even just heard of these names." - she was furious. "I really have to say that all this makes no sense, it is simply impossible."

"I do not know what to say." - Simon was also puzzled. "I told you everything I know, believe me." - he knew that she was still thinking that he was hiding something from her. Lara did not know what to believe. Having invested so much time on this she did not want to believe that it was pointless.

"Forgive me, but I can not stay here. I need something else." – she said, and hurried out of the room. She did not want him to see her anger, it was a feeling of weakness if she could not control herself.

This was the third time in the two days that Lara left the room with this excuse. Simon began to become intrigued what she might do.

Two hours passed without Lara coming back. Simon wondered where she was while still searching on the Internet, hoping to find some information, but to no avail. Then he got up, stretched his back and walked out of the room. He had no idea where to look for Lara, did not even know the house well enough. A few minutes later he gave up and went to the kitchen to find Winston.

"Do you know where Lara is?"- he asked the butler. "I start to get worried, she disappeared two hours ago."

"Do not worry, she always forgets the time when she trains."

"Training? What do you mean? And where is she?"

"She has her own training room, specially equipped for her. You find her in the right wing, at the end of the corridor. But Lady Croft does not like to be disturbed by training."- Winston shouted after Simon.

"I just want to see that she is okay." - Simon said in return not waiting for Winston's reply anymore.

Another ten minutes passed before he found the location, the house was far too big for his taste. But then he finally saw the big double door, which led to the gym. Softly opened it and entered not yet going any farther, just looked around. It was a huge room, with high ceilings and arranged in a way he had never seen before. The walls were covered with climbing walls, cornices, ledges and bars. Large wooden boxes were lying around, columns rising up from the floor, ropes hanging from the ceiling. Even a small water-filled pool was in the corner. The whole thing seemed terribly complex and difficult. But at first glance did not see where Lara was. Then he looked in the other direction and there she was beating the life out of a sand bag. For a few minutes he was just standing there and watched her, she was really good. Slowly he was getting used to the idea that she managed to surprise him again and again.

"When you said you need distraction, I would not have thought you wanted to kill that poor thing."

Lara looked up, and only then noticed that the man standing there.

"I'm sorry if I ruined your image of a lady." – she said as soon as she stopped beating the bag.

"In fact, I am more and more impressed." – he replied. "This place is very interesting. If I had known about it, I would have tried it myself."

"Really? So here is the opportunity. How about something physical? Sparring?"- asked Lara with a challenging face.

"I was thinking about a little bit different kind of exercise" - he grinned.

"Should I take this that you are backing out?" – she retorted ignoring his comment.

"I do not want to hurt you."

"Do not worry about me." - she smiled at him. "Or are you afraid to stand up against me?" – she teased him further. Lara knew this would do it. A man did not want to seem weak in front of women.

Simon went over to the stand where Lara kept the sticks next to the wall, grabbed one for himself and threw one to her. She caught it and right away swung it around in her hands. It looked quite impressive. For Simon it was also not the first time that he had such a thing in his hands but he did not want to look too confident, he had no idea what to expect from his opponent. He approached her and they started to circle around with the sticks, neither of them willing to make the first move.

"Come on, I will be gentle." - Lara teased him more with a defiant smile on her face.

This has taken effect, Simon did not wait longer and launched the first attack. The first struck was rather weak, it was no challenge for Lara to fend it, and started a counter-attack right away. Both were still moving cautiously and slowly. The stick was coming from the right, Simon swayed away from it, and attacked her legs. Lara jumped up to avoid the blow. She spun and struck while turning around. This time, Simon was not fast enough and Lara hit his upper arm. There was no strength in the hit, he hardly felt it. Lara immediately got back to position smiling confidently at him.

Simon decided not to let her win. The hit brought up the competitive spirit in him. He straightened up and went to the edge of the carpet. He took off his shirt, which was a very uncomfortable to move in. He took a deep breath to clear his mind. Lara followed him with her eyes a little disturbed by the gesture. This was the first time she saw the man this way, he did not make a bad view. His broad, muscular chest was just as worked out that it was pleasant to look at. Lara forgot her eyes on him for a few seconds, her look automatically wondering down to the waist line of his jeans. Fortunately, he did not notice this, came back to the carpet and the fight began with renewed vigour. The pace became more intense, the sticks clattered loudly as they met with a faster and faster speed. Both were highly concentrated, not to get hit by the other. Neither of them wanted to hurt the other, just wanted to win. Lara stepped forward and attacked, Simon avoided it with a side jump. They had no idea how much time passed in the meantime. They both started getting tired, but none of them wanted to give up. Facing each other they were panting. Simon, gathering his last strength, launched yet another attack. He pretended to attack high, but at the last moment, changed direction and approached from below. Lara did not react quickly enough and the stick swept her legs out, she landed on her back losing her stick. The sudden victory made Simon careless, he stepped on the stick, lost his balance and found himself on the ground next to Lara.

Both of them were lying on their backs, breathing heavily from the physical exhaustion.

"You are not that bad after all." - she admitted.

Simon rolled to the side, leaned over her, steadying himself with one arm on her other side.

"Can I take this as a compliment?" – he asked with a smile on his face.

"Seems that I am still not on the top."

"If you prefer this we can change but at the moment this suits me quite well." – he said grinning over Lara's words. Simon was holding her gaze, Lara could see the same expression in his eyes as that night in the house. She knew she should not have let this happen again but it felt like she was not controlling the situation. She knew she should have fought against it, but somehow failed. Simon saw that her lips slightly parted, he could not have resisted her even if he wanted to. He leaned closer and kissed her. At first only gently, not knowing how she responded. His hand wandered to her waist pulling her closer. As he felt no protest the kiss became more and more passionate. He wanted to taste every bit of her. His free hand slid under her shirt, he felt a little twitch of her muscles as he happened to touch her previous injury. But he could not restrain himself, he had to touch her skin. He felt her hands sliding over his chest to his shoulders. Without breaking the contact Simon raised his body completely over hers holding himself on both arms, not putting his weight on her. This gesture made Lara realise though where they were heading, and she did not want this, not here and not now.

The next thing he could feel was a push against his body, he was thrown over Lara's head and landed hard over her on the floor. _Why do I always land on my back when I am with this woman?_ - the question crossed his mind. But he did not have time to say or ask anything. Lara jumped on her feet and held her fight-stick against his throat.

"If you try this again I will kill you." She turned around, threw the stick down and walked out of the room.

"It could not have been so bad." – said Simon more to himself than to her.

Lara angrily ran up the stairs, furious with herself. Fortunately she did not run into Winston on the way, she did not want to be rude to him when he had nothing to do with her state of mind. Slamming the door behind her she threw herself on the bed. She hated it that Simon could upset her so much, that he had such an effect on her. The physical training was supposed to resolve her frustration, but this was even worse. Anger and dissatisfaction took her at the same time. She still felt the man's hands and lips on her. _Who the hell he thinks he is?_ - she raged to herself. Why did she let him close when she knew exactly what would happen? She was forced to admit to herself that she was very much attracted to Simon, but she did not want to let him in her life. All she knew about him was what he told her and this could have been a big fat lie. Just as so many had lied to her in the past. The worst thing was that she knew that she wanted the man equally. She did not know how long she could still resist him or even if she wanted to. She took a deep breath to settle her thoughts. Minutes passed as she was just looking at the ceiling slowly calming down. The best would be to pretend as nothing had happened - she decided. She did not want the man to see how he stirred up her emotions. After a quick shower she put on fresh clothes.

Meanwhile, Simon was still lying on the ground where Lara left him. He was not willing to move. _How can it be that one moment she is passionately giving in to me and in the next one she runs away?_ - he did not understand this reaction. _Women_ - he thought - _you cannot live with them, you cannot live without them_. Unfortunately for him, he started to feel that for him this was not a game anymore, he wanted her all the way, that she was entirely his and no one else's. He was angry with himself for not being able to control his actions. Lara has repeatedly stressed that she did not trust anyone, and now he very much demonstrated that she could not believe him either. Although she clearly told him earlier that she only wanted a working relationship, he again crossed the line. However, he did not understand why Lara gave him conflicting signals. Before it did not feel at all that Simon's approach was against her will. He knew the chemistry was there, the way she responded to him made him sure of this. But he needed to win her trust, to prove that whoever hurt her in the past, he would not_. Maybe it is the best if I apologise_ - he decided. He got up from the floor and walked toward her room, forgetting that he still was not wearing his shirt. Slowly walking down the corridor he was thinking what to tell her. Just as he wanted to knock the door, it opened and Lara stepped out of the room.

"Lara ... I ..." - but he could not finish what he wanted to say.

"You still have not changed?" – she interrupted him. "Winston is ready with the lunch. A little bit later than usually but wear something and come downstairs."- she told him completely naturally with her usual friendly smile on her face.

"Okay." - that was all what Simon was able to squeeze out of himself in surprise. _Now_ _what was that?_ - he thought to himself when Lara left. _This woman drives me crazy. First she still wanted to kill me, now it is like nothing had happened._ He turned around and went back to his own room.

When Simon joined her in the kitchen, Lara was sitting at the table. In recent days, they ate only there not too complicate things unnecessarily. Now that Lara calmed down somewhat, her thoughts were back to the map. She was getting more and more confident that the whole did not lead anywhere. Completely absorbed in her thoughts she only remotely heard Winston saying something.

"Excuse me, what did you say, Winston? Sorry, I did not listen. "- she asked thinking Winston was talking to her.

"Nothing important, Lady Croft. I just said that the steak sauce had a new name once again. I hardly found it in the shop. The old name was much better."

It was as if lightning had struck her, Lara suddenly jumped up from the table and rushed out of the kitchen. In the distance the two men still heard her shouting something like 'Winston, you're a genius'. They were just staring at each other in amazement. Neither of them knew what had happened.

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**Please feel free to review. I would like to hear any opinions to get better. Even if you find something boring, let me know... :) No offense taken :)**


	7. Chapter 7

**Thanks for the reviews guys, it is always a motivation if people like what I am writing.**

**The lyrics at the end of the chapter are copyright to Halestorm (Song called 'I bet U wish U had me back'). I recommend it to anyone who likes good rock music! **

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Simon and Winston hurried after Lara. They found her in the library, feverishly searching around on the desk that was completely covered by their papers.

"Well, of course ... How could I be so stupid?" – she said to herself, failing to take notice that the two men were standing in the doorway. "I cannot believe that this did not come to my mind. It's so obvious."

The men were puzzled, still did not understand anything. It seemed Lara discovered something, but they had no idea what it could be. Simon finally gave up.

"What are you talking about? Can you maybe share your thoughts with us? "- he began to be restless.

Lara looked at the papers, and hastily began to explain to them.

"We completely focused on these two names on the map. But it is clear that this was incorrect and, therefore, we did not get anywhere. Because they do not mean anything, they are not at all important. What we need are the old names, which were substituted by them."

"Probably you are right." - Simon began to become excited and rushed to the map. This may have been the hint they were waiting for.

"Show me where you found the differences. We need to find what was on the original map instead." - she urged him.

Both were frantically searching the table, while hoping that this would not be another dead end.

"Wait a minute. I need to find my notes." - Simon said and continued rummaging among the papers. Lara would have endured anything now but waiting. Her fingers were nervously drumming on the table. Finally, the man pulled out a printed version, where he marked the differences.

"Here it is. The two names are: Mary King's Close and Holyrood Palace." - he said pointing to the two places, which were highlighted in yellow on the map.

"Wait a minute. Now everything is clear. How could I be so stupid, of course. It totally makes sense." – Lara still rather talked to herself.

Simon looked inquiringly at her. It was very annoying that he did not know what Lara did. The most nerving thing was that he did not receive an explanation from her.

"This whole thing has very much to do with Scotland. I suppose you have heard about Mary Stuart, also known as Mary of Scots." - Simon nodded. "Of course, she was Queen of Scotland, but what is more interesting to us is that according to a legend Mary Stuart had had a medallion. When she was wearing it, no one could contradict her will. It was said that the medal had power over people's consciousness, everyone did what she wanted without noticing that their minds were affected."

"And you believe in such tales?"

"You would not believe how many of these tales are actually real. This would not be the first time. Lord Crestley would have found this interesting enough to contact me with it."

"How do you know that this map has anything to do with this?"

"It must. Mary King ... I know that she was another person, but the name clearly refers to Queen Mary. This itself points in this direction. But that is not everything. The other name, Holyrood Palace was the residence of the queen. During a renovation architects had found a very strange inscription in a secret room, which was used by Mary Stuart. Nobody knew what it meant. And now we know why." - she enthusiastically explained further. This was her field, she finally knew where they were heading.

"Why? What was written there?" - he demanded more and more impatient. He hated that he had to pray for every piece of new information.

"The inscription said: on the wall of the highest tower. Naturally, this makes no sense like this. After a while people gave up the research and thought that it was just a coincidence."

"What makes you think that now we will solve this? Why does the sentence make sense now?"

"It does not." - she replied with a confident smile on her face. Simon was now totally confused.

"I do not understand. What are you so excited about this then?" – he asked Lara.

"Because I know where to look to understand it." – she replied.

"Either you tell me the whole story now or I will go crazy." – he threatened. Lara, of course enjoyed her superiority, it gave her some satisfaction that she could play with his nerves a bit. She smiled and took a sip from the glass of water next to her just to delay the answer a little bit further.

"I thought, by now you found it out yourself. It is pretty clear." – she liked to tease him, in the meantime it became part of their conversations. "Everyone knows that the inscription does not make sense. The reason for this is that the sentence is not complete. Half of it is missing and we now know where to find the other half."

"You mean if one part is in the Holyrood Palace, the second part must be in Mary King's Close?" - Simon was surprised. It was a daring conclusion from Lara's part, but it certainly made sense.

"You are not that bad at this. That is exactly what I thought too."

For a while all was quiet. They had to digest the information, the breakthrough came so suddenly after two days of stagnation. Both of them were standing there leaning against the table not taking their eyes off the map. Although there was nothing to see on it, it did not tell them anything new anymore. Lara had absolutely no doubt that she was right. She looked over to Simon, he turned his head to her and asked the exact question that was bothering Lara at this moment.

"Do you think this is enough information to find the missing part? If I remember well Mary King's Close is quite big. How are we going to find a small inscription there?"

"This is a very good question. This problem will be dealt with when we get there."- she replied. "Edinburgh is roughly four hundred miles away. If we start early in the morning, we can be there around nine in the morning and start the search."

"You mean we fly there?"

"If you want to call it like this." - she smiled. " I suggest we pack our things together, get a few hours sleep and start around 4 am. I do not want to waste time. Winston, can you please put my usual equipment together? We also need extra climbing outfits."

"Of course, Lady Croft. I leave everything in the garage. "

"Thank you, Winston. Then I see you in a few hours, Simon. Try to sleep a bit." - she said and left the room.

Lara changed to a long, loose T-shirt, which she usually slept in, brushed her teeth and slipped into the bed. She knew she needed a rest, the next day would be long and hopefully full of surprises. But she was too excited to fall asleep. At last progress was made, at last they knew what they were facing, at last it all made sense. In the very last moment, when she was about to give up everything. Despite the fact that all pointed in the opposite direction, she believed that his father's friend had not died for no reason. Lara felt the usual excitement and urge, she immediately wanted to leave despite the fact that she knew that haste in such case did not lead to anything good. She could only hope that their opponents did not precede them. This was the most exciting part of the work, to solve the puzzle, the anticipation, the knowledge that she was capable to outsmart her competitors. The adventure had always been more important to her than the treasure she found. Her findings were generally offered to museums anyway, unless they were too dangerous to be publicized. As she speculated about the recent happenings, her thoughts inevitably were diverted to Simon. She still did not understand what he was actually looking for. What did he really expect from the whole thing, what were his intentions? Did he keep contact with the agency? Lara had never seen him calling anyone but of course this meant nothing. If he wanted to hide something from Lara, he could easily have done that. It was a totally new situation for her. Lara had always worked alone, never had to care of someone else. On the one hand it was reassuring that the man was there to share her thoughts with. Never before did it occur to her that working together with someone would be positive in any way. Although Simon's style often annoyed her, she got very accustomed to his presence in the past few days. On the other hand, the situation would become completely different when it came to action. Over the years she had to take care of herself, she was not used to worry about anyone else's safety than her own. However, why should she be worried about him, not that she would have any feelings for him ...or was she lying to herself? _This is ridiculous, I hardly know him for a few days_ – she thought to herself. _I may be physically attracted to him but that is all _– she tried to convince herself. She realised she was not at all angry with him anymore, he did not lie to her after all, she was the one overreacting things. He could be at least as much angry with her, why should she expect him to tell anything to a woman he just met at a party a few hours before? Lara thought back at that evening they met for the first time, it seemed like ages ago although it was only a few days back. Simon always had this confident smile on his face, which irritated her but he was also charming in a way. Her thoughts wandered to that evening in the house, to their short but passionate adventure. That time he was a light flirt for her, a pleasant evening before she started to work. It all came back to her mind, how he kissed her, how he held her, she almost felt his hand on her waist again. "Oh come on, you are being pathetic again" – she said loud to herself and shook her head as willing to literally get rid of these thoughts. She was no maudlin teen anymore, a purely physical relationship would not have been against her will. But in this case she found this far too complicated, she did not want risk it. It took her ages still to fall asleep.

Two doors down the corridor, Simon also had problems with sleeping. He was not used to getting to bed so early, on the other hand also in his head there were a lot of thoughts spinning. He could not believe that Lara finally managed to decode the map. In the end, he too began to doubt its authenticity. Actually he feared that Lara was right, and they were running after non-existent treasures. But the woman was simply amazing, he never met anyone like her before. Of course, she was stubborn and always wanted to control everything, but Simon found that very exciting. When he first saw her at the party, she was just a pretty woman he wanted to get for fun. But since he got to known her a bit better, he was more and more impressed by her. In many ways she was an equal partner, in many ways even beyond him. But this did not disturb Simon. Most men could not bear it if a woman was stronger than them, but it caused no problem for him. He respected her for who she was, more and more every day. Now he could not wait to see her in action although he hoped that things would not get too dangerous. He could not bear the thought to see her hurt again. Suddenly he realized that he never felt like this for anyone before, protective even if she most probably did not need it. _Why do men always automatically want to protect women?_ - the thought ran through his mind. He began to feel stupid that he was thinking about things like that. _If I am not careful, I will end up like a slimy romantic guy_ - he laughed inside. _Why do things have to be so complicated with women?_ If it was up to him, he would just go over to her room right now and….. _and what?_ – he questioned himself. He did not understand her, but who understood women at all? One minute she was nice, in the other hostile. After what happened in the gym he was convinced that she was angry with him but ever since she talked to him as kindly as if nothing had happened. Simon was more and more certain that someone hurt her in the past and that made her so distant. He decided that he would do what Lara asked him. Keeping the appropriate distance he would do everything to gain her confidence. The time would come when Lara would want him, it would not even take that long. Patience ...

At the end he fell asleep so deep that he only woke up to some loud knocking on the door.

"Come on, we are leaving. I will wait for you in the garage, you have ten minutes." - he heard Lara's voice from the other side of the door.

"Shit." – he cursed.

Simon jumped out of bed and hurried to the bathroom. In that moment he was glad that the previous night he prepared everything he wanted to take with him. He did not want Lara to tease him the whole day about being late. Five minutes later he was on the way downstairs.

Lara was in the garage putting the equipment that Winston prepared the previous day into two big sport bags. Simon entered, looked around and whistled approvingly.

"Not bad."

All around in the room there were at least ten of the best cars in the world, there was everything that money could buy. Each perfectly polished, glistening in the neon lights. Some were not even known to him, they were so special. Lara looked up at him, Simon noticed a slight blush on her face and she quickly turned her look away again. This kind of reaction was not very typical for Lara but looking at him brought images of her dream from last night back to her mind making her blush. She felt like a schoolgirl because of this but even she could not control her dreams. Lara rather turned her full attention to the equipment. Her eyes ran through the list again: weapons, ammunition, PDA, laptop, GPS, camera, headsets, ropes and other climbing equipment, flashlights and other tools. She liked to be prepared for everything.

"Are we moving to war?" – Simon asked amused.

"I can see you never did archaeology." - she laughed being her usual self again. "I assume that we will not be the only ones appearing at the spot. I do not want to have problems with protecting ourselves."

When she was done, Lara took one of the bags, then walked towards a car.

"We take the Aston Martin." - she said and opened the trunk.

Simon grabbed the other bag, and then followed the woman. It was very heavy, the weight surprised him. He could not imagine what Lara packed in there. As they got closer to the car, he looked at it. It was beautiful. Simon was not one of those men who were obsessed with cars but this vehicle impressed even him. Simple lines, clean forms, yet fascinating, it radiated power as the light shone on the dark grey metallic paint. It reminded him of a shark. The inside of the car was not less unique, all chrome and leather surrounded them, grey was dominating as well.

"Pleasant." - Simon commented on what he had seen. "Not exactly like the Mini."

"No, but it is practical. You will see." - Lara intentionally used the same word that Simon did for the Mini. Of course, the two vehicles were incomparable. But she was also proud of hers, it was her favourite car. Despite the fact that there were faster or more expensive cars in the garage, this one was always her first choice. It was fast and perhaps less striking than a yellow Lamborghini or a red Ferrari.

Lara inserted the key into the slot, turned it and pressed the button on the dashboard, which started the engine. The car blustered as all 517 PS started to work. She loved this vibration, which emanated from the machine. It was as if it lived its own life, it penetrated her body as if they would have melted together. The audio device switched on, loud rock music filled the interior. Lara leaned back in the seat, fastened the seat belt and closed her eyes for a moment. It was a wonderful feeling. Then a few seconds later she looked over to Simon.

"I am sorry, I forgot that you like classical music in the car." – she started the usual teasing. Slowly she enjoyed it more than Simon.

"I can live with this. In your car you choose the music." – he replied smiling at her. He liked this kind of music more anyway but never would have admitted it.

"Then I show you what I call driving." – she said with a nasty smile on her face. Putting in the gear she took off her foot from the clutch and at the same time stepped on the gas. The car's wheels were spinning and it shot out of the entrance. It had an incredible strength. Within moments they were out of the estate and turned onto the main road. They were heading to the highway leading to the north with a vicious speed. All cars that were on the road that early in the morning were overtaken by Lara, often she pulled back the car to the left side of the road in the very last moment. Fortunately, Simon was not easy to scare, he enjoyed the ride almost as much as Lara. She was driving very dynamically exploiting the potential of the car, even if it was still nowhere near the peak of its performance. It was obvious that she knew what she was doing, even though Simon was sure that most of the show was for him.

"Are you not afraid to be caught by the police?" - he asked after a while.

"It has happened before, but believe me, I can handle the situation." – she replied and put an irresistible smile on her face to demonstrate what she meant.

"I can imagine." - he did not envy the policeman who stopped Lara. He was sure that not many could resist her charm. Men would do a lot to please her. Still he would have been so curious what she would do if a female police officer stopped her.

Barely an hour later they were racing on the highway, from there it was only a matter of time to arrive to Edinburgh. It was getting a little lighter, but Simon had not much chance to enjoy the view. They went so fast that the landscape just slipped by. The journey passed in silence since the last conversation, only the music filled the room. Simon was a little surprised that she listened to such a thing. Although as he thought about it, it matched her very much. Hard sound but it was all about emotions. Just like Lara. If someone managed to break through her defences. About two hours later, he turned down the volume to be able to talk to her.

"I was thinking we should pretend to be a couple in Edinburgh to avoid attracting attention" - he told her with an innocent face.

"That is the big idea you were thinking about in the last few hours?" - she asked back.

"Why? You got a better idea?"

"I do not really understand to what extent it would mean any difference to our situation. Do you think the whole world is after us?"

"We already stand out with this car. At least we could look more like tourists."

"Right. Why do we not take the honeymoon suite right away?" – she retorted.

"If you insist." – Simon joked.

"When do you stop trying?" - Lara was annoyed.

"What do you mean?" - he asked back pretending not to understand what she referred to.

"Nothing." - Lara just did not want to start this topic.

"Then what? I was just thinking that we can communicate more easily if we are in the same room."

"I do not care. If you like to sleep on the couch. But do not expect anything."

Simon was glad she did not reject the idea completely. At least a small step forward. Lara turned back the volume indicating that the conversation was over. All Simon could do was listening to the lyrics that shouted from the speakers.

_I bet you wish you had me back.  
Another chance to get it just like that.  
The best you ever had.  
And do you close your eyes with her,  
And pretend I'm doing you again.  
Like only I can.  
I bet you wish you had me back.  
Every night. Every time.  
You see me when you close your eyes._

_You bet_ - Simon thought to himself. Then he closed his eyes and tried to relax on the rest of the journey.


	8. Chapter 8

It was not even eight o'clock when they reached their destination. Entering the city Lara slowed down not wanting to draw unnecessary attention to themselves by the police. Simon opened his eyes as he felt the change in the speed.

"Well, did I promise too much?" - Lara asked proudly.

"No. It really was like we were flying. And where do we go now?"

"To the Scotsman. It will do perfectly."

The Scotsman was a luxury hotel in the old city centre, just a few steps away from almost all the tourist attractions. Even Simon knew it by name. The hotel was located in building of the former newspaper with the same name. The atmosphere of the era was preserved, yet all the modern needs were met.

"I guess it will." – he answered a bit surprised.

"Do you have anything against it? You have preached before about us being too striking. We cannot stop in front of a bed&breakfast with this car."

"I told you that we should have come with the Mini." - Simon argued.

"Sure, and we may have been out of London by now." - she retorted laughing.

In the meantime, they arrived to the hotel. Lara stopped the engine and got out. The doorman immediately greeted them and took action. Within a minute a luggage-porter appeared who proceeded to take the baggage out of the car. His face showed surprise by the weight of the bags but of course he did not complain. Another young man appeared who drove the car to the garage, while Lara and Simon entered the hotel lobby. The whole sight was a unique blend of modern and older styles. Inside the hotel there were only men and women in business style standing or sitting around. The newly arrived 'couple' was standing out quite much with their clothing.

"We do not really fit in the picture." - Simon whispered.

"Do not worry. This is the only thing that counts." – Lara said and waved her Platinum Visa card in front of his face.

"I still am not completely sure what you do but I also want this job." – Simon joked.

"Are you saying the MI6 does not pay well?" – she retorted.

Lara went to the reception desk and organised a suite. When done she set off towards the elevators, Simon joined him on the way. He pressed the button and shortly afterwards the door opened. The elevator was small, not the new-fangled, fast type. As Lara stopped directly in the door, Simon was forced to step behind her. The woman pressed the button for the fifth floor. The elevator door closed slowly and the cabin started to move upwards. Facing the door Lara felt that the man stepped closer and stopped directly behind her. His hands slipped to the sides of her hip. Lara shut her eyes and almost felt the breath of the man on her neck. She did not know why, but instinctively tilted her head to the side a bit expecting to feel his lips on her neck at any moment. But nothing happened. Simon needed a great effort to resist the temptation of the soft skin. He wanted her to long for his touch, to find out how much she wanted him. A small ringtone signalised that they arrived to the fifth floor and the door opened. Lara was disappointed, not understanding why. She did not want to look at Simon. Without any comment she just stepped out of the elevator and started walking towards the room. Simon stood there for a while, and just looked after her with a malicious smile on his face. _You are not that tough, Lara Croft_ - he thought and followed the corridor.

The key card easily slipped into the slot, the light changed to green and Lara entered the suite. They found themselves in a spacious living room, from where a door led to the bedroom with a double bed. The whole suite was tastefully furnished with light pastel colours. Lara sat down in one of the cosy armchairs, Simon threw himself on the couch.

I am glad you like your new place" Lara teased him. "Let us discuss our plans for today and then we start when our luggage is here. First we go to Mary King's Close and participate on a tour like anyone else."

"You see, I told you we need to look like tourists." Simon joked.

"Try to concentrate a bit, this is not a game. One person already died because of this map, I guess our opponents will not sit still and let us take the price. So when we get there, watch out for every detail, alarm system, possible ways to get in, which door leads where, etc. We will take cameras with us, try to make as many photos as possible so that we can prepare for returning tonight. We can try looking for the message during the tour but I doubt it would be so easy to find it."

They heard a knock on the door, Simon went to open it. The porter arrived with the luggage. He carried in the two large bags not knowing what equipment was hidden in it. Simon gave him some tip and then he left. When Simon turned back Lara had already opened one and took out her laptop. Being proactive she saved a map of Mary King's Close, which now appeared on the screen. They began to inspect it.

"Hopefully we will find the inscription somewhere accessible. I would be really disappointed if we did not get any further from here." she said. "Without the second half of the sentence we are screwed. It is almost 11 am, let us get our things together and go."

She took out a camera and threw it to Simon. In her own backpack she found place for a small but high-resolution video camera, her essential PDA, a flashlight, some rope and finally a gun. _You never know_ - she thought.

"Ready?" – she asked Simon.

"As always." - he replied, and they left the room.

As they reached the elevator, the thought crossed Lara's mind that it would be better to take the stairs but eventually she pressed the button. This time they reached the ground floor without any interlude. They stepped out of the hotel, it was a pleasant summer morning. Here in the north the summer no longer felt so hot but at least it was not raining. For the time being. After not much walk they reached the Royal Mile, which was the artery of the old town. It connected The Royal Palace and the Holyrood Palace, which were the residences of the royal family. A lot of tourists were walking up and down, it was easy to mingle among them. The hotel was about halfway between the two castles, the entrance to Mary King's Close was to be found towards the royal castle. So they turned right and were heading up the Royal Mile. Barely a few metes later Lara was caught by the same strange feeling again as at the party. It was as if they had been observed. Not willing to be suspicious she did not look around. Slowly she turned to a shop window, and stood there in front of it seemingly very interested. It was an old trick, the reflections in the glass showed very well what was going on behind her back. She did not have anything to say.

"I know ... we are being followed." - said Simon hardly noticeable.

"That is great. At least we now know that they do not have much, otherwise they would not waste time with following us. The bad news is that now they also suspect that we are after the map." - Lara was thinking out loud.

"I think they did not solve the map if they want to obtain information through us."

"Probably you are right. However let's not make their job easier. Change of plans, first go to a few other places as well. At least it will not be as clear where we are heading. Maybe we can get rid of them somehow. From now on, we must be very careful."

"Then let's go to the royal castle. I think it would be plausible destination. Too bad that we need to waste some time again, while looking very interested in what we see."

"I know." – she replied. "But I expect this. Everything has gone all too easily. I think that is the end of your 'looking like tourists' idea. They will hardly buy it that we are only on holiday here."

They walked towards the castle. There was no need to go far, the Royal Mile did not get its name by coincidence. By the time they got there a long line formed in front of the ticket office. Unfortunately for them they could not avoid it. The castle was built on top of a hill from which the whole area could be seen. They very nice building was preserved still in its original form. Those who came to Scotland, certainly did not miss to see it. As long as the line snaked forward, Simon tried to spot the stalker. Their follower seemed to be a very clever guy, Simon needed all his experience to track him. Of course, they could not be sure that he was the only one after them. A good quarter of an hour elapsed before they could cross the gate and started up the hill. Just a short walk separated them from the middle part of the castle where all the entrances opened. Lara was walking with a visibly annoyed face next to Simon. She hated this unnecessary wasting of time when she knew that they should have been somewhere else. But now, they had a rival, they could not afford to let him so easily follow them.

"Try to look a bit more excited, darling. Nobody will believe it that here is the key to the mystery if you look like someone who goes to the dentist." - Simon said softly.

Lara knew that he was right but she was not in mood to show a good face to this unnecessary pastime. Annoyed she looked up at the sky as if waiting for rescue signal to arrive.

"This is how I look when I am excited." – her voice was a bit more harsh than originally planned. Lara did not want to take it out on him, though she was not a little irritated that once again he called her darling. But she decided not to give him the pleasure to mention it.

"I am sure you do not." - he grinned. Of course he had ambiguous thoughts in his mind again. Lara pretended not to notice the edge of the comment.

They went straight to the vaults, which was one of the oldest parts of the castle and could be the venue to hide ancient secrets. They entered the gate, the stairs led to a steep downhill. Simon stayed a bit back to watch out, hoping to be able to spot the man who followed them. Lara walked down to the prison part furnished with bunk beds and waxwork revealing how the prisoners spent the time in this dark place. The woman took out a booklet from her backpack and began to take notes. Drawing back to a corner she examined along the walls. Of course, she was not doing anything, just tried to act like someone who discovered something interesting. Perhaps among the other tourists, there were their opponents. The guy from before could not be seen. Slowly she was proceeding in the corridors, trying to stop at several places, which seemed appropriate for a distraction. Simon followed from further away. Half an hour later though Lara went over to him.

"I think that is enough. If the guy did not come after us, even then we spent enough time that the story looks plausible."

Together they left the underground passages and left the area without even looking at anything else.

"Then you choose the next target." – Simon said.

"Let's go to the St. Giles." – Lara suggested.

In this case the situation was quite fortunate that almost everything important was located on the Royal Mile. At least they did not have far to go. Lara chose the following location intentionally, it was only meters away from Mary King's Close. If they could get rid of their followers for a short time, there was a good chance that they could get in there in a couple of minutes without being noticed. As they were walking back on the cobblestoned road, Lara had been attentive to Simon disappearance. She was so absorbed in her thought that she did not realize that he was not there with her. After a few minutes he joined her again with two pre-packaged sandwiches and two bottles of water in his hands.

"You did not eat anything since dinner yesterday." – he said and gave her one box.

"Thank you." - Lara slowly forgot to eat if he did not remind her from time to time. They sat on a bench and began to eat quietly. She looked at the man as he was sitting next to her. Lara had never met anyone who cared for her so much. Except Winston of course, but he was different, she almost considered him a second father. Sometimes Simon seriously surprised her by doing such things. _He has such an irritating style, why do I feel so ... so relaxed when I'm with him?_ - ran through her mind.

"Can we go now?" - Simon asked when Lara swallowed the last bite as well. Time was precious.

"The plan is the same as before. We get in, look around. I eagerly take some pictures and notes. You try to locate the guy. I really want to get rid of him before we go into Mary King's Close."

Soon the cathedral appeared in front of them on the left side. The building was rather wide than tall, but the walls were worked out beautifully from the outside. The huge arched windows implied how nice the interior may be. They were not disappointed when they entered the west gate. The cathedral had preserved medieval atmosphere, the walls were made of stone, were not painted. Not covered with frescoes, it was impressive. The high vaulted ceiling fell over them protectively. The beautifully detailed stained-glass windows filtered the light, leaving colourful rays of lights the air, one could almost touch them. The tiny motes of dust in the air hardly moved as the sun illuminated them. Twilight reigned inside, the little light that came through created a strange light-shadow play. People walked around and talked softly to each other. Lara always had some kind of twisted feeling when she entered a cathedral. It was gloomy and overwhelming at the same time. Once again they split up, the woman went to a side chapel and has begun the investigation. Her annoyance was forgotten with time, the building was so beautiful. She took out her booklet again and began to take notes. Of course, there was no significance to it but she seemed very busy again. Simon went to the opposite side and was watching the people. Only groups could be seen, a single man would have been easy to spot. Trying to bring some system into his investigation, he began at the altar and slowly moved his eyes down toward the entrance. He devoted his attention to a smaller group in the middle when a figure caught his eye. Lara was standing on the other side next to the wall facing away from him. The light was falling on her from the side running down on her perfect curves. Simon simply could not take his eyes off from her, _she is just too damn sexy_ – he thought. As if she felt his eyes on herself, the woman turned around. For a moment they just looked at each other. Lara sent a questioning look towards him, not understanding what he wanted to indicate, then walked over to him.

"Do you see him somewhere?" – she asked.

"No. Either they changed to someone else or they lost us. Although I doubt that it would have been as simple as that."

The job was almost a mission impossible for Simon, almost all men took a good look at Lara. It was hard to decide who was really watching her. She looked provocative without any intention. The jeans went up just over her hip, the tight black t-shirt was emphasising her curves just the right way. As she was moving, sometimes the tanned skin of her stomach was exposed. Simon dismissed the idea that the sight inspired in him. Jealousy compassed him when he saw that other men feasted their eyes on her, even though he knew that he had no right for this. It was increasingly difficult to keep his own promise, the proximity of the woman drove him crazy. He loved to work with her but it was also very frustrating. For the first time he thought that it may not have been such a good idea to share the room with her. But at least they would not spend much time at the hotel.

Then he saw the man. He stood near the altar, a small group around him. Not the same face, but he looked too often at the direction of Lara, which began to become suspicious. Was he just looking at her or really watching? There was only one way to find it out.

"Let's split up. There is a guy in that group who is suspicious to me. Leave the church and we will see if he follows you. If he is going after you, lead him to the alley behind the cathedral. I catch him." - he inaugurated her in his plans.

Simon turned his back to the group so that Lara could also look at the guy he was talking about. She nodded, then walked toward the exit. Simon sat on a bench, and picked up the Bible. The man at the altar hesitated, he was not prepared for such situations. Apparently he could not decide whether to follow Lara or stay in the church. Then with great difficulty he took the plunge and started toward the gate, after Lara. She even stopped in front of the entrance for a short time, making sure that her follower did not lose her trail. When she made sure that he was following her, she turned into the little alley that Simon proposed to her. The alley was narrow, hardly two people could stand next to each other in it, it was standing empty waiting for something to happen. Just right for her plans.


	9. Chapter 9

**Hi again. Thanks for the reviews and I am glad you like the story. Do not worry, it will definetely have an end! :) But there is still some way to go till then :) R&R as always! :)**

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The man passed him, Simon waited until he reached the gate and he also went after him. Leaving Lara alone more than necessary was not part of his plans. He turned to the small alley ready to attack but to his surprise it was not needed. The poor guy was already pushed against the wall by Lara and she pressed a gun in his face. The man was absolutely terrified, not a word came out of him.

"Who the hell are you and why are you watching us?" - Lara shouted at him.

The man looked at her as if he would not know where he was. Simon could not decide whether he even understood the question. Finally he forced out a few words, he was talking with a strong American accent.

"What do you want from me? I am just a tourist." – he said shaking with fear. A middle-aged man, with slight overweight around the abdomen. Simon could imagine less and less that someone like him would be a member of a criminal organisation.

"Why are you following me?" - Lara repeated the question.

"I am not. What are you talking about?" - the guy tried to deny but it was clear that there was no chance for that.

"Do not try to make me believe me that you accidentally wandered into this alley." - she began to lose patience. She pretended to beat him with the gun but only smashed the wall next to his face.

The man shuddered and seemed to give in.

"Look, I think I misunderstood something. I only wanted to get to know you."

"What are you talking about?" - Lara started to get confused.

"You were so pretty and were always looking over at me." - the man explained.

Simon was increasingly enjoying the situation. He could hardly resist not laughing out loud.

"Idiot. Go back to your group and keep listening to the tour guide!"- Lara exploded. She lowered her arm, which pinned the guy to the wall and pushed him out of the alleys. Lara was more than angry. Another half hour wasted for nothing. When she looked at Simon's face, she was beside herself with anger.

"I hope you enjoy yourself."

"Oh yes. Great show. You should not be so mean to your admirers." - he laughed. Lara just turned her back on him and walked away.

This was a situation that she would probably just laugh about in a week but at this moment Lara was furious. Although she did not really understand why. She took a deep breath and waited for Simon to join her. The only positive point was that it seemed that with this little adventure they managed to shake off their opponents. They looked around but saw no one nearby. Of course there were many places to hide, the city was full of alleys, doorways and small shops. Slowly it was three in the afternoon, it was time to start the actual work. The entrance to Mary King's Close was almost directly across on the other side of the Royal Mile. They hoped to get in there unnoticed. As planned they were to take part in a guided tour, they did not want to go back at night completely unprepared.

They entered the building, which led the underground streets.

"Would you please buy tickets for us? I look around a bit out here if there are other ways in." – Simon asked her.

Lara did not mind, alarm systems were not her favourite part, she was only happy if Simon would take this over from her. She waited inside for him, they still had twenty minutes to till the next guidance. When Simon entered the hall where the tourists were waiting at first he did not see Lara anywhere but then he discovered her in one corner talking and laughing with a bunch of guys who appeared to be students. She was slightly flirting with them while the guys were obviously overwhelmed that such a woman was talking to them. They were competing for her attention. Simon walked over to them and stood next to her surprised to hear that they were talking Italian.

"There you are." – he said.

The boys were noticeably disappointed that they had to share her company with someone else.

"Lui e' il tuo ragazzo?" _(Is this your boyfriend?)_ - the guys asked.

"Credo che lo vorrebbe essere." _(I think he would like to be) _- Lara replied laughing while looking at Simon.

"C'e' la possibilita'?" _(Does he have a chance?) _- the boys were looking at Simon with growing interest as if it was some kind of test.

"Non pensi di essere troppo curioso?" _(Do you not think that you are a bit too curious?) _- she replied enjoying that Simon did not understand anything from the conversation.

"Buon divertimento! E'stato bello conoscerti." _(Have a good time. It was nice to meet you)_ - she finally said goodbye to them.

"Arrivederci Bellissima!"

"Now what was that?" - Simon asked while the guys were still excitedly murmuring in the background.

"Do not be too curious. A woman has her secrets." - Lara laughed apparently enjoying the situation. She could strike back a bit for earlier when Simon amused to her detriment. "Italian men are so charming." - she added. She noticed Simon's annoyed face with satisfaction.

"I am glad you had a good time." - Simon replied slightly offended. Somehow he felt they were talking about him, Lara smiled so mysteriously. Of course he knew that Lara was not interested in these boys yet he felt jealousy as he had seen them laughing around.

At last a young girl called for then 15:30 group to enter. Lara and Simon stayed behind, they did not want everyone to see them. The guide started down the stairs, the others followed. Lara knew much about this complex but she had never been down there in person. It felt as if one went back in time. Mary King's Close was built on the hillside so at the height of the Royal Mile the houses were still relatively low. This, however, changed drastically as they moved away from the old town. As Edinburgh was squeezed between walls the only option for the increasing population was to expand upwards. Thus, the houses were getting higher, they were so close together that in some places one could almost grasp over to the neighbours. The poor used to live in Mary King's Close, there was a huge crowd, many people lived in an apartment, it was a misery. When the city decided to reconstruct the area, the houses were demolished. But not entirely, only to the level of the Royal Mile. The City Hall was built on the top of the old houses. So it became a depressing, dark, gloomy underground road where the sun never shone. The poor continued to live in the semi-demolished underground houses for a long time. This fact, of course, filled Lara with fear, she feared that the inscription may have been destroyed over time. The tour began on the main street, which was still the broadest, between the houses ropes were stretching on which laundry was hanging. Having no natural light, lamps illuminated the houses, which further increased the mystical atmosphere. The group then went into the flats, where the guide told them about the everyday life, the poverty, the epidemics. The air was heavy, the claustrophobic feeling grew. Simon was not able to completely straighten because of the low ceiling.

Lara touched his arm indicating that they should stay behind a bit.

"I am sure no one will realise for a while if we are not there." - she said.

"Your new friends surely will." - Simon retorted.

"Do not be childish" - she smiled at him. She enjoyed that this little conversation made him so jealous. Inside a room they hid behind the wall and did not follow the others. They waited until the group was far enough. They went back to the main street to look around. Lara pulled out the small camera and began to scan the walls with it. She did not really watch what she was doing, there would be time to go through the recording later. In the meantime she went down to the area where the houses were the highest. Simon was examining the walls inside. Twenty minutes passed slowly that they left the group. Lara was just preparing to leave when she heard steps from the opposite direction. This could not be the group, someone else was approaching.

Then suddenly a hand reached out from the darkness, grabbed her arm and pulled Lara in nearest doorway.

"Shhh ... someone is coming. It would not be good if they find us here." - Simon told her.

They pressed themselves in the dark corner of the small room so that the person coming could not see them. When they ducked behind the wall they realised that the place was really small, they could hardly hide. But there was no time to find something else anymore. Lara pressed herself against him with the back as Simon was pushed against the wall. Although at that moment neither of them really cared about this, they wanted to stay hidden. When the steps came closer Lara tried to peek out who it was. To her greatest relief it was only a young guy who worked there, he must be checking the place before the next group came in. Lara just wanted to tell Simon that there is no danger when the guy started to talk to someone who was out of her sight. He was not alone. In the next moment she could see the man's face, the same Asian guy who was following them before.

"Each group follows this route." – the boy explained to the man. "I remember this couple, they came down about half an hour ago."

Lara was sure they meant her and Simon. How did they find them so quickly again? She was convinced that they managed to enter unnoticed.

"What is going on?" - Simon whispered behind her since he did not see anything.

"Keep quiet. They will hear us." - she said. Lara saw that the Asian man seemed quite lost, had no idea what he was looking for. Obviously they were following them and not the map. Suddenly he looked her way, Lara pulled her head back pressing herself even more against Simon.

"Do you know if they talked to anyone or asked anything?" - she could hear their opponent's voice again.

"I do not know, I only saw them upstairs. Maybe you should ask Carrie who leads this group."

"Okay, thank you for your help. Let's go, I have seen what I wanted."

The two men walked toward the exit. When they were out of sight Lara finally eased herself, they both moved out of the corner which started to become very uncomfortable.

"Let us catch up with the group, it will be suspicious if we are not there when they get out. I do not think we get any further now and the next group will surely be here soon."

They sped up their steps, being careful not to bump into their follower if he was still around. Using the crowd to leave the building as unnoticed as possible they went back to the hotel room.

In the room Lara immediately pulled out her laptop from the bag and connected the camera to it. Simon took out two drinks from the mini bar and then sat down beside her on the couch. They began to watch the recording, almost twenty minutes of material was available to them. The image quality proved to be quite good although it was a bit shaky sometimes as Lara was moving during recording. They watched it several times, rewound it, stopped the image, zoomed into some details but did not notice anything unusual. The chance that the inscription could be noticed so easily was very small but they did not give up so fast. Moreover, there was nothing else to spend their time with till it got dark. Totally immersed in it they did not notice that the evening arrived.

Simon looked at his watch, it showed nearly eight.

"How about something for dinner?" - he asked.

"Good idea. I forget to eat if you do not remind me sometimes." – Lara agreed. Meanwhile she hardly took her eyes off the video. Slowly they knew it inside out.

Less than twenty minutes had elapsed when the food arrived. Simon opened the door and pressed some tip in the waiter's hands.

"I did not know what you like so I ordered several things."

"Thank you. Just about anything is fine with me."

She chose steak with steamed vegetables, Simon ate pasta. Without a word they ate for a while, Lara finally broke the silence.

"I think it would be best if we go back quite late at night. Did you find something where we can easily enter?"

"Yes, further down is a staff entrance, which is on a quite remote place. The alarm did not seem to be any particular challenge. I guess not many people want to steal old buildings." - Simon joked.

"I think I try to sleep a bit before we go. It has been a long enough day." - Lara said when she finished dinner. "Can we leave at 2 am? Is it ok for you?" – she asked Simon.

"Of course, it is perfect. Sleep well." – he answered while Lara left for the bedroom.

Simon could not get rid of the thought that he was overlooking something on the video. He could not explain the reason but something fumbled in his mind. As if he was subconsciously aware that the solution was there on the screen. Back on the couch he watched the file again and again but the longer he looked the more he could not figure out what he should notice. Slowly the frames blurred in front of his eyes. As he watched the film for the tenth time he more and more slid down on the couch. As he then closed his eyes for a minute he fell asleep.

As if struck by a lightning he woke up and sat up immediately. Suddenly he knew exactly what he was looking for. The laptop was still standing in front of him the open on the table, the film halted at the end. Quickly he wound it to the exact place what he needed. And suddenly out of nowhere it was there, in front of his eyes all the time. High on the wall of a building, there was an inscription. Immediately he tried to read it but it was impossible. No matter how he zoomed in it was too small or blurred. But he was somehow entirely sure that this was what they sought. He glanced at the watch, it showed 1 am.

"It is time to wake Lara." - he said to himself. Walking toward the bedroom he quietly opened the door and walked over to the bed. Lara was still asleep, her long hair spread out on the pillow. He had never seen her hair open. He just wanted to wake her when the woman quickly reached under her pillow, grabbed a gun and pushed it in his face. Simon was so surprised that he could hardly speak.

"Hey, relax, it is just me." - he said quickly.

"You should not sneak in like this. What are you doing here anyway?" – Lara asked while lowering the gun.  
"I think you need to see this, I guess I found something." – he told her and left the bedroom again.

Lara got up, quickly put her hair in a ponytail and went to the other room as well wearing only her sleeping shorts and a loose t-shirt.

"Look at this." - Simon said as she sat next him. "I knew there was something I saw on the video, the whole evening I could not get it out of my mind." - he showed her the place what he meant.

"Hmm .. not bad." - Lara leaned closer to the screen with growing interest. "You can not make out much of it but at least it is something. It could be what we are looking for. At least a chance that we are not looking for a needle in a haystack anymore. At the end I make a treasure hunter out of you." - she joked.

"Let's put our things together and go now." – he urged her.

"I can see you got the taste of it. Is this not the best part of it?" - Lara smiled. She was equally excited if they really found the second part of the inscription.

"Give me ten minutes and we can go. Can you put the climbing equipment together in the meantime? I guess we will need it."- she said and went back to the bedroom.

Not even ten minutes had elapsed when she appeared in the doorway again, dressed completely in black. She laughed when he looked at Simon, who was also in black.

"I am a bit afraid what people will think of us leaving the hotel like this." – Lara said. "Anyway, let's go. I have everything in my bag pack, you have all the ropes?"

"Yes, everything is ready."

"Here, a headset for you. This way we can communicate a bit better down there."

Fortunately almost nobody had been in the lobby at such a late hour. Only the night porter looked at them a bit strange as they passed in front of him but they did not care.


	10. Chapter 10

**Hi folks. Enjoy the next chapter :) I am sorry about the format but no matter how much I am fighting to enter some breaks in between, the system does not save it. I hope it is still clear what is happening.**

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This time they did not go to the Royal Mile, it was still too crowded even so late. Being a pleasant summer night the old town looked beautiful with the lights. However people were mostly not interested in the tourist attractions, they were sitting in the pubs and restaurants. A lot of young people were wandering in the streets and a variety of strange characters that lived their lives almost exclusively at night. Lara and Simon tried to avoid the places where there was still a crowd, they approached their target from behind. As much as possible without attracting attention they tried to navigate in the dark streets where their clothing melted into the environment. It occurred to Lara that black may not have been the best choice, they looked like the thieves. In a sense they were although they were not planning to steal anything. It was not the first time for Lara that she had to intrude somewhere, through the years she had developed her own moral stance about these things. The most important thing was not to see everything black or white, she was often balancing on the edge of criminality. She knew that many people condemned this approach but there was no choice. Often she could not proceed without certain pieces of information, which could not be obtained any other way. If she needed something, she did not recoil from breaking and entering. She was not proud of this, considered it as a necessary bad. This was one reason why she tried to keep most of her work away from public, it would have raised too many questions that she did not want to answer. Now again she was planning to penetrate a facility even if she did not plan to take anything or leave any evidences. For Simon it was also not the first time to do something illegal. Of course he tried to keep this within limits and set his own rules. He was excited, not because what they were about to do but about what was at stake. Everything depended on this now whether they find the sentence, whether they would be able to continue the search.

They reached the backside of the building. Lara stopped for a moment.

"I will stay here and watch out while you unlock the door."

"Okay, I do not think it will last very long. I tell you when I am ready." - he said and put the headset on his right ear. Lara did the same.

Simon went to the door and began to examine the small box on the wall where the pin code must be entered. He took out a small screwdriver from his back pocket and cautiously opened it. A set of wires exposed in front of his eyes. With his pocket knife he cut one, pulled off the plastic cover from the two free ends. He took out a small black box from his bag. At that moment he was very glad that he brought the thing with him. He felt that he would need it. The ends of the wire were attached with pinchers and the equipment came to life. Green numbers were running around on the little screen with incredible speed, not much time passed until the correct code appeared.

Meanwhile, Lara watched the small side street but she did not notice anything strange. Nobody came in her direction.

"The door is open." – she heard in the headset a few minutes later.

She turned around and joined Simon. He disconnected the device and put the lid back on. From the outside there was no sign that anything had happened when they entered the building. Inside there was total darkness, they used the flashlights. As they had already been there, it did not cause any difficulty to find the stairs leading down.

"We need to turn on at least some lighting, with these small lights we will never find anything." - Simon whispered to her.

"I am sure we can find something down there." - Lara said. At the bottom of the stairs they found the box with the fuses. Simon looked inside and managed to turn on some emergency lighting. It was not much but they did not want to attract attention. The spotlights were located along the foot of the houses and illuminated approximately five feet of the walls. Everything looked really spooky. They went down the slope. After watching the video a thousand times, they knew exactly where to go. First they wanted to check the hint that Simon found. If this was not what they were seeking for, they could start to search the whole complex. Lara did not even want to think of this. If possible everything looked even more oppressive in the low light.

They reached the building on the video. Some houses used to have up to ten storeys before they were destroyed. The building in question still elevated at a height of at least seven stories in front them. With the flashlights there was absolutely no chance of seeing anything at the top.

"It seems that the only way is to climb up there." - Lara said. Simon saw that this solution even pleased her.

"You think this is a good idea? We are not prepared for such a height, it can be dangerous." - the man looked up, frowning.

"This is not the first time I need to climb up somewhere. Just stay here and learn." - Lara smiled at him. After putting on her fingerless leather gloves she fixed a small LED light on her backpack, then looked up at the wall to some degree plan the route where she wanted to go. The ceiling could not be seen. _The rest of the wall will be a surprise_ - she thought.

She stepped on the first window frame and jumped up. The floors were not high, without any difficulty she could climb to the next window. She quickly reached the third floor level. But from there she did not see another window above her. Looking around she was thinking where to go on. The other house behind her was about good six feet away, she saw a projection, where there was a good chance that she could jump over. Grabbing the edge she pulled herself up to the ledge. The earlier injuries no longer hampered her, she was back into her old form. She came this far without any effort. Standing with her back to the wall she looked down at Simon, who was watching her every move from below.

"Can you see anything yet?" - She heard his voice in her ear.

"Patience. The difficult part is yet to come. "- she answered back.

"Be careful!" - Simon added.

Lara used the opportunity to look around. This was the very end of the street, she was surrounded by walls on three sides. She had to reach the top of the wall opposite her, but she saw no possibility for climbing. Beside her maybe ten feet above the wall there was a window frame, above this a relatively wide beam led around the walls. She only had to find out how to get up there. Between the two buildings a bar stretched through over her head, which stabilized the whole structure. The idea was born in Lara's head. She made a forty-five degrees jump and grabbed the pole with both hands hoping that it would be strong enough to hold her weight but she was lucky. She turned around facing the wall opposite her and launched herself. She was swinging around and around as a professional gymnast. In due course she let go and caught the projection on the wall. After pulling herself up to the window she was only a small leap away from the beam she had seen before. Hanging with her two arms on the rafter she shimmied over to her original target. She was able to hang the rope fixed from her belt on the ceiling so that it retained her weight. Now she could use both hands freely. The time has come to find out whether they were right.

"Okay, I am here now." - she talked into the headset.

"What do you see? Is this the inscription?"- Simon asked impatiently.

"At least it very much looks like. The same meaningless half-sentence."- Lara began to become excited. There was not much hope that finding the writing would be so simple. A smile ran over her lips as she was hanging on the wall fifty feet high. In this profession luck played a large role. And now it was on their side.

"What does it say? Do you tell me or do I have to climb up to see it?"

"It says: Where the largest water lies. Roughly translated. It is in Gaelic. "

"Well, this means we did not get closer to the solution right away."

"Do not complain all the time. At least we found it." - she said. "I will make a recording and an imprint as well. Then we will see how to proceed."

She took out the camera and scanned over the writing with it. Then she got out a piece of paper and quickly made an imprint with the help of a crayon. Once she was ready she let the rope down and simply slid down on it.

"Good job." - Simon praised her. "I could not have done it better myself." - he joked.

"Next time I let you do it." - Lara replied sweetly. "So now let's get out of here, and let's see where we get with this."

They were heading out without any interruption, meeting no one on the way at all. Lara found this strange, she did not understand how that Asian guy found them so fast the other day even twice and now there was no sign of him. She did not like this, things were too silent. But nothing happened, they got back to the hotel room without any problem.

"This was fun." - she said throwing herself on the couch again.

'I'm glad you enjoyed yourself but now what? "- Simon asked.

"So far we know that the entire inscription reads: Where the largest water lies, on the wall of the highest tower. Quite likely that this will lead to a new message. Does not seem like a hiding place for an amulet."

"We just have to find the biggest water and the highest tower. Sounds simple."

Simon broke off a bit that they were getting to another message. He wanted to know if that infamous medal really existed. Thus he felt no urge to think about new puzzles at four o'clock in the morning. He leaned back on the couch and waited for Lara to solve the issue. The woman did not seem tired at all, this was her element.

"We should take certain assumptions, otherwise it would be very difficult. If Scotland had been the site so far, let's hope that this does not change. The largest water .. this may be the sea or a lake. Since the whole of Scotland is surrounded by water, it would be difficult to tell which is the largest. My guess is that it is about a lake."- Lara was thinking out loud. Meanwhile she paced up and down the room, she could not sit in one place, talking to herself rather than to the man. Simon could only watch her as her brain was working and wondered how she was still able to think after they have been up and running for almost twenty-four hours slowly.

"The biggest lake in Scotland is Loch Lomond. This relatively restricts the area where we need to find that particular tower. Let's see whether we can find something on the Internet." - Lara said and looked at the man, who was just starring in front of him in the nothing.

"Simon?" - she asked again.

"Sorry I was not listening." – he apologised.

"I have noticed. Did you hear what I said?"

"Sure. The internet is my job."

He took out the laptop and started looking. This was a relatively simple question. Castles in the area of the lake.

"Three Castle are mentioned in the area. Perhaps Dumbarton Castle would be the most logical choice because it had a connection to Queen Mary but it is not directly at the lake. Another option would be Balloch Castle, which lies very close to the lake. What do you think?"

"Well ... not exactly what I expected. Quite strange that this is such an ambiguous hint."

"What does that mean? Are we on the wrong way?"

"No, I do not think so. We go to Loch Lomond. Let's sleep a bit, we badly need it. In the morning we leave."

"You are the boss." – he did not say it but he was grateful for the rest although he did not understand why he was so exhausted.

"Then enjoy the couch and I shall see you in the morning."

Lara lay down on the bed but something did not let her rest. Something fumbled in her mind, something was not right. But she could not figure out what it may have been_. In the morning I can see things clearer_ - she thought and tried to sleep.

The alarm clock on the bedside table showed eight o'clock when she opened her eyes. It was a beautiful day, the sun shone through the cracks of the curtain. Lara stretched herself but she did not feel like getting up. Despite the fact that they managed to move on she felt very tired after the recent happenings. _Half an hour more or less does not matter anymore_ – she thought. The bed was very comfortable, almost like the one she had at home. This thought made her feel a bit guilty that Simon had to sleep on the couch but on the other side it was his own fault. He could have had his own room with his own bed if he had not insisted on this stupid idea of sharing a room. After a while she decided to get up anyway and went to the bathroom. She leaned on the sink and started to brush her teeth. Thinking about the day before the nerving feeling came back to her that she missed something. "What bothers me so much? The first part of the hint is quite unequivocal but why is the second one not?" - she talked to her own mirror image. But her reflection did not give her the answer. She put on a bathrobe and went to the door leading to the living room. Seeing that Simon was still sleeping, she did not leave the bedroom but went to the phone next to the bed.

"Can you please bring us breakfast for two? Scottish breakfast will be just fine." - she told the receptionist. "Please leave it in front of the door, I will pick it up." She did not want to wake up Simon.

She could not wait for long, she was very hungry. After fifteen minutes she slipped out into the corridor. Fortunately the hotel was very fast, the tray was standing on the floor. Quietly she entered the room and put it down on the table in front of the couch. As Simon smelled the fresh coffee he slowly turned around and opened his eyes.

"Good morning." – Lara greeted him. " I hope you are not angry that I wake you up but I ordered breakfast in exchange."

"Not exactly the worst way to wake up." – he said smiling at her. "Everything a man desires." – he added while not taking his eyes off from her.

Interestingly Lara now did not find him intrusive, Simon appeared to be so harmless as he was sitting on the couch with messy hair. She settled down in the armchair opposite him with her legs under her and started a croissant. He also sat up and started to eat his scrambled eggs.

"What do you think we find at the lake?" – he asked her.

"I do not know but I certainly do not give up easily. I can feel that we are on the right track."

"Is this what you always do? Running after hints, breaking in, climbing and all this?"

"More or less. There are so many secrets yet to be discovered. My father showed me how interesting the history was and I wanted to continue his work."

"I did not see much of your work yet but it looks very much different of what I would have imagined for you on the first day."

"Do not expect to get me known in a week. That takes more time."- Lara said with a challenging smile on her face.

Simon said nothing but held her gaze as if he silently accepted the challenge. He poured coffee for both of them handing one cup over to her. Lara leaned forward and took it from him. Her lips formed a silent thank you while the eye contact between them was not broken for a moment. They enjoyed this quiet, intimate atmosphere, which evolved.

When the tray was all empty they found no excuse to just sit there and enjoy each other's company anymore. The adventurous spirit also began to wake up in Lara. No matter how pleasant the morning was, she lived for the excitement. While Lara packed up the equipment, Simon took possession of the bathroom. Not much later he appeared in the doorway, freshly shaved, wearing jeans and light blue shirt. The woman looked up, leaving her eyes just a bit longer on him than it was necessary.

"I need to get dressed too, then we can start." – she said to him while approaching the bedroom door where Simon was standing leaning against the door frame. Lara looked at him inquiringly because he did not move out of the way. She hoped that he was not planning anything. The morning was so pleasant, she did not want to spoil it. But then Simon stepped aside and let her in.

Down the hall Lara paid the bill, the car had already been in front of the entrance waiting for them. They drove off towards the road leading out of town. Many people turned their heads after them in the street. The Aston Martin was not the kind of vehicle that could be seen every day. They turned to the M8, which took them through Glasgow towards Loch Lomond. Only a one and a half hour trip separated them from the lake. It took a bit longer to get through the city as the traffic was strong enough when they arrived to Glasgow. All way long the message was running around in Lara's mind. She could not escape the thought that something was wrong. Just a few miles was left to go when she suddenly stepped on the break and stopped the car in a parking lot. She got out and nervously paced up and down the dusty roadside. Simon did not know what happened. He also got out watching her over the top of the car for a while. Not knowing if he should interrupt her he just listened. But he could not endure it very long.

"What are you doing? Why are we stopping? "- he asked her.

But Lara did not seem to hear him at all. She went back to the trunk and took out the imprint of the message. After watching it for endless minutes suddenly she spoke up.

"Of course, once again I was stupid."

"What is wrong?" – Simon did not understand anything again but started to get used to this situation.

"All the way something disturbed me." - Lara began to explain. "It is unusual that the hint seems to show to a number of possible locations. But now I know why it is like this. I translated the message wrongly. It does not say biggest water but biggest amount of water."

"And that changes anything?" - Simon countered while he went to the back of the car.

"This changes everything. Because Loch Lomond may be the biggest lake of Scotland according to the surface but it does not have most of the water in it."

"How do you know all this?" - he wondered.

"That is my job to know it."

"So what is the new target then?"

"Loch Ness".


	11. Chapter 11

"You mean that Loch Ness?" - Simon asked back not understanding the sudden turn.

"Do you know any other? Loch Ness is not as big but far deeper than Loch Lomond. It is the biggest lake by volume. And what lies exactly at the lake?" - she test him.

"I guess a tower." – he tried his luck.

"Almost. Urquhart Castle."

"So we have our target?"

"The only problem is that the castle is in ruins. I do not know what we can expect, I am afraid that whatever was hidden there, it had been long destroyed."

"We cannot know before we get there and take a look ourselves, right?" - Simon tried to approach the matter positively.

"Of course." - Lara took out her GPS and selected the location. "We are roughly one hundred and forty miles away, that is nothing for the Aston Martin. Early in the afternoon we will be there. But I am afraid we have to wait till dusk, the place is always full of tourists during the day."

"I am always happy to invite you to a dinner while we wait." - he smiled.

He liked to watch Lara thinking. True, it was annoying that she only shared her findings with him afterwards but then everything seemed so simple and logical. Again and again she impressed him how intelligent she was, how much she knew.

Back in the car they drove to the north. Nearly two and a half hours later they arrived at the lake, Lara drove on the west side. Dark clouds were reflected on the protracted water surface. In the north a big change had taken place in the weather, the air was much colder, clouds covered the sky, it was almost imperceptibly drizzling. Lara sometimes turned on the wipers, which ran fast in front of their eyes. The car slowed down in the car park as soon as they reached the castle. Lara wanted one more look at the building before it got dark. Everything looked different in the daylight. There was not much left of the castle, the buildings were hardly recognizable. The only part that was more or less intact was the tower. Of course they could not be sure whether the message they were searching for was maintained over the time. But in this case their task was simpler, the tower was a lookout point with stairs leading up till the top, they did not have to climb the walls. People liked to observe the water from there hoping to catch sight of Nessie, the Loch Ness monster. The place was abounding with tourist groups just as Lara had expected. There was no sense to try their luck now, they could not have been able to look around the way they wanted to. Getting in the car again they drove to Lewiston, which was the nearest small town.

"Do you think we need a hotel room? We just have to wait till the evening and we can leave right away after we found what we came for." – Simon suggested.

Lara did not see the situation so rosy. First of all, difficulties could arise any time. Second, she did not want to spend the next hours sitting in the car at all. Last but not least, even if they found the next hint, probably it would not be so easy just to find out to where it was leading. They needed a place where it could be solved and they could plan the next steps.

"I guess it is better if we find something." – she said.

The first place they ran into was called Loch Ness Inn. _Typical_ - Lara thought. She stopped the car behind the building, she did not want unnecessary attention. Surely people were accustomed to tourists on this part of the country but they both did not exactly look like typical holiday-makers. At the reception desk a middle-aged woman greeted them, she talked with a strong Scottish accent. While Simon organised the room, Lara looked around the lobby. The walls were covered with wood backs, it was a relatively small room. The whole inn could not be very big all in all. At one end the stairs led to the first floor where the rooms were located, on the other end a small restaurant was visible, which belonged to the facility. Probably most of the guests were on the way, silence reigned throughout the inn. Simon got the key, they paid the night in advance, they could never know how sudden they need to leave the town. The woman smiled at them kindly when they went upstairs. Simon opened the door and let Lara step in first. This room was quite different to the one they had in Edinburgh. The one small chamber was almost entirely filled by the large double bed, a small table stood in the corner with two chairs. On the other side of the bed a door opened to the bathroom. Lara could imagine how small it could be. But everything was clean and orderly. But in this moment she realized that this time she should have insisted on separate rooms even if they did not plan to spend the night here. How would they spend the next hours in this small space until it got dark enough? She dropped her bag on the bed and walked to the window to let in some fresh air.

Lara thought it would be best to spend the time preparing. Taking out the laptop again she connected to the Internet. Nowadays everyone could easily obtain plenty of information this way completely free. It would be stupid not to use this chance. Lots of pictures could be found where they could observe the tower from all sides. The rest of the castle was rather ruined, only the remains of the walls could infer how beautiful the building once could be. Roughly one hour could be spent this way but then there was nothing more to discover what they had not seen yet. Simon rose and went to bed. He stretched himself on it leaning against the head restraint.

For some time they listened to the silence but then Lara's voice could be heard again.

"Tell me something about yourself. I do not even know who you are." – she said watching him inquiringly. "How did you get to the MI6?"

"That is not such an exciting story. At the age of fifteen I lost my parents. I moved to one of my uncles, who was a pretty strange guy. He was not an easy person but took care of me. I was sent to military school and as he also worked for the agency, it was after a while obvious to him that I will also start to work there. However he was no agent, only worked in the administration. I think he was proud of me that I took a different way, in my opinion he always wanted to play James Bond himself." - Lara watched him talking about his family. It did not seem to cause him any difficulty to bring them up. For her it was still a painful memory to mention the loss of her parents, she was seized with sadness still if she raised this topic. "So I worked for a time in England after the training but then I was sent to Africa for years. But I cannot tell you more, else I have to kill you." - Simon joked. "Many people think that this is a very interesting work, like on TV but that is not the case." - Simon continued. "I think your life is a thousand times livelier."

"My life is not like this every day either. Although I am working on it." - she laughed.

"What about you? Why did you choose this life?"

"The gist is told. My father introduced me to this world. I learned a lot from him. Later I went to school abroad, I travelled a lot, and I realized that this is my life. That is what makes me happy."

"You are a very strange woman, you know that?" - Simon said amiably. He could not find a better word to describe her.

"You're not the first person to say that to me." - she smiled back.

"Where did you learn all this?"

"Already at school I did gymnastics, l was quite good. But then I developed it further in another direction. Later I spent a year at the Royal Marines."

"You are kidding, right?" - Simon looked shocked. Only the toughest could join this elite troop. The training was almost unbearably difficult. He heard of many, who could not stand to go through the base year.

"Is this so hard to believe?" - Lara countered.

"No, but I thought you could no longer surprise me. I was wrong."

"I take this as a compliment." - she smiled back.

Her body started to stiffen sitting on the uncomfortable chair, she stretched herself yawning. Simon saw that she looked over to the empty half of the bed more and more often.

"Are you going to squirm on that chair the whole afternoon?" – eventually he asked her when he could no longer watch it. "Feel free to come to the bed. We are adults, I am not going to bite you." – he teased her a bit again. Lara stood up and walked over to the bed. Without a word she stretched herself on it. They were both lying on their backs starring up. It felt good after the hard chair. Lara closed her eyes to think a bit. But she did not achieved much, in a short period of time she fell asleep. Simon did not feel tired although they did not sleep much in the recent days. Of course he knew that Lara was much more exhausted, she was the one driving for hours, climbing on the buildings, thinking about the puzzles. Sometimes he felt that he had not done much to contribute to their success so far. Although this was not entirely true, he decided to participate more in the work from now on. He would not let her do everything. Lara was driven by her pride, she had always worked alone but he wanted to help her. Slowly he was tempted to sleep, his eyelids got heavy. He did not know when they would have the next possibility to rest, so he let it happen and fell asleep as well.

Simon woke up first. He looked around nervously but when he saw that it was not yet completely dark outside he relaxed. They did not have to wait long anymore to leave. Lara was still asleep, lying with her face towards Simon. The man turned to his side and watched her for several minutes as she was breathing in a slow pace. She seemed so peaceful, it was perhaps the first time he could watch her undisturbed. Even so she magnetised him in a way, which was almost impossible to resist. Simon felt a strong urge to touch her, to stroke her cheek, but he did not. It clearly lived in his mind still how it felt to touch her, how silky her skin was under his hands. He did not trust himself that he could once again withstand the desire that touching her aroused in him. He forced himself to turn away and sat up in bed. The move woke Lara, who looked around as if first she would not know for a moment where she was. She noticed Simon, who was sitting with his back to her. Perfect silence reigned in the room, only the bed squeaked softly as he moved. Lara was surprised that they were lying in the same bed for hours and Simon did not even try anything. The previous days he did not leave out any opportunity to draw closer to her and now he did not even touch her. It seemed that Lara finally managed to change his mind. But why did she feel a slight frustration over that?

"What time is it?" - she asked suddenly.

Simon only then noticed that the woman was awake.

"A bit after nine. It is not yet completely dark, but slowly we can prepare." – he turned back to her sitting on the edge of the bed.

Lara also sat up rubbing the rest of the drowsiness out of her eyes and left for the bathroom. Simon still sat there and tried to loosen up his neck. As his head turned from side to side something caught his eyes. Lara's reflection appeared in the large mirror in front of the bed as the bathroom door stayed a crack open behind her. She just took off the shirt she was wearing. Simon knew that he should not watch her but he could not turn his look away from her. His eyes ran along the strap of her bra that crossed her well-toned back. Then the woman stepped farther and he could not see her any longer. Lara quickly washed her face to finally wake up. The air got much colder outside, she put on a v-necked sweater. Despite the fact that she wore rather sporty things she liked to emphasize her femininity. She preferred tight clothes, which showed her figure, a low-necked sweater or top, short-waist pants. Resolutely looking into the mirror she again was ready to start the adventure.

The Aston Martin set off the road to the parking lot, and Lara stopped the engine at a secluded part of the area. Fortunately the vehicle was not striking in the darkness, it would have been fully melted into the environment if not sometimes a gleam of a lantern glistened on the polish. With a binocular in her hands Lara scanned the area. She did not see anything suspicious, not even security guards were used. Probably not many people wanted to break into such a place, there was nothing to steal. The terrain down there was relatively flat, only the main building, where tourists bought the tickets and the parking lot were located on a higher place. A quite steep slope had to be climbed to get back to the cars. Of course they had to choose the hard way, the official buildings were closed at night. Fortunately the night lights of the castle were subdued but the tower was covered in a blaze of light from the outside. This made the situation somewhat more difficult. Lara could only hope that the task could be carried out quickly and no one would come this way at night. It would be hard to explain what they were doing there in the dark. They picked up their bags and descended the slope on the right-hand side, which was less steep. Silence reigned in the deserted neighbourhood. The castle was on the lakeside, there was no nearby residential area. The grass felt slippery under their feet after the rain earlier. They entered the ruins and were heading directly to the tower, which rose in the most remote area. Simply going up the stairs like any other tourist they did not even have to use the flashlights, the lights provided enough light to move around safely. The tower had had only three walls, they climbed as high as possible then they ducked behind remainders of the walls.

"Let's look around inside first." - Lara suggested.

If they were lucky, they might have as well avoided of having to climb outside, where the chance was bigger that someone might perceive them. They padded over the walls, looked under every stone that could be moved but found no sign that there would be something hidden.

"I do not think we can avoid another climb." - Simon whispered. "But now it is my job."

He wanted to show that he was capable of everything Lara was. He wanted to be part of the research, not just to watch her work.

"Go ahead." - she smiled back at him.

Simon fixed a rope to the banister, which surrounded the inner lookout. When he made sure that it was holding, he climbed out to the outer side of the wall. He was hanging about ten feet above the ground. Lara ducked behind the walls again and waited. The time seemed unbelievably long while Simon was searching. She was not used to inaction. Her eyes followed the rope as it was rolling from side to side following Simon' movements.

Simon started the first wall and scanned the rocks, slowly moving to the side. He did not want to miss anything. He held himself and threw the rope around the corner of the tower to move over to the second wall. Almost half an hour passed, Lara could not imagine what he was doing for so long. She started to become impatient by just sitting and waiting for the result.

"See anything?" - she asked softly.

"Not so far." - she heard Simon's voice from beyond the wall. "Wait a minute. There may be something here. This stone is very loose, it is possible that there is something behind it. Give me a knife or something to get it out."

Lara pulled out a knife, leaned over the wall as far as she could and threw it to Simon. He began to scratch around the stone and then finally managed to move it out totally. The hole was big enough that he could push one of his hands in it. After pulling it out he was holding a small, beautifully wrought metal box in his hands.

"I think I have found it." – he said to Lara but in this moment the sound of a shot broke the silence of the night. Simon felt a sharp pain in his arm.


	12. Chapter 12

It came so surprisingly that he almost dropped the box but he managed to gather himself.

"What the hell was that? Are you okay? "- he heard Lara's urging voice from the other side.

"Help me back up! Quickly! "- he replied with the same urge in his voice. Whoever shot him before, he knew that hanging on the wall he provided a perfect target. It was a miracle they did not hit him the first time.

Lara pulled the rope with all her strength, Simon climbed as fast as he could.

"Someone is shooting at us." – he gasped when he dove to the inside of the wall next to Lara.

"I can hear that but where did it come from? - she asked nervously while taking the two pistols out of her backpack. Although she feared that they will not be much of a use. The shot was clearly coming from a sniping rifle, the shooter could be anywhere. The only hope was if they reached the car and disappeared from the premises. With their backs against the wall they were trying to gauge the odds.

"It all seemed too simple. How the hell did they find us again? "- Lara did not understand, she was almost certain that there was no one who had followed them. Their opponents could not be so good that neither she nor Simon did notice them.

"We need to move quickly." - she said to Simon as she handed a weapon over to him. "I do not want us to become easy targets."

"Believe me, it was also not my plan to throw in the towel here." - Simon retorted. As if he did not know what to do.

They pushed themselves away from the wall and ran down to the base of the tower. So far, they were safely hidden inside. The difficult part started here. They flattened against the wall, Simon spied out. He did not see anything in the dark, the next shot could have come from anywhere.

"We run along the wall, till there." – he pointed to a spot where the path forked. "Then you run left and I run right. We meet up there at the car."

Lara nodded her head without speaking. He waited till Simon started and ran after him. Once they left the shelter, another shot rang out above their heads. They jumped behind some low wall remainders. Simon looked at her, indicating that he would run off to the opposite direction. While distracting the shooter's attention, Lara could safely reach the following ruined lots. She knew that Simon intentionally chose the more difficult terrain, that way there were almost no hiding possibilities at all. But there was no time for debate because Simon had already started. The shooter also targeted him right away but missed in the dark as Simon threw himself behind a small protrusion. Meanwhile Lara was running in the opposite direction, trying to get around the ruins where the hill was less steep and reach the car. Their opponent was unsure for a moment, seemed unable to decide at whom to shoot. Eventually Lara heard it again how the bullets whizzed not far away from her ears. She ducked behind the last wall that was between her and the car, now she just had to climb up to the parking place. She looked over to the other direction, where Simon was hiding somewhere in the dark but she could not make him out. Just hoping that the shooter's job was equally hard and he was doing fine. Taking advantage of the momentary silence she jumped out of the shelter. She ran up the hill, approaching the car she pushed the button on the remote. The doors opened and she jumped into the seat. The sniper seemed to have lost her out of sight because the bullets were not coming anymore. Suddenly she noticed that Simon also climbed up the hill on the other side of the parking plot. Another shot forced him behind a big rubbish bin. Lara started the engine and stepped on the gas. When she got near him, she pulled the handbrake and making a hundred-eighty-degree turn she stopped the car in front of him so that he could jump in on the left side. Two seconds later they were speeding out of the parking area. Lara only heard the last shot from afar, which had drilled into the side of a car.

"Did he just hit my car?" – she asked with both surprise and anger in her voice. "If I find these guys..."

"Just go and get us out of here. We have time to think about the car later." - he replied, laughing. He was in a very good mood. Especially that they reached their goal and were still in one piece.

Lara stepped on the gas and drove away at high speed. In the meantime she kept watching the rear view mirror if anyone was following them. Simon was also constantly looking back but they saw no one. Nothing broke the perfect darkness, no one was around at this late hour. Not far away Lara saw a B&B sign on a secluded house. She pulled in front of the house, the parking places were separated by high bushes from the road, which seemed like a perfect hiding places. As there was still light in the kitchen, she thought it was worth a try if they could still get a room. Lara knocked, an elderly man opened the door. Simon watched them talk for a while, then Lara waved him to follow. The old man looked at them a bit strangely that they just appeared at the door in the middle of the night in such a dishevelled state but he showed them to the first floor. As soon as the door closed behind them, Lara turned excitedly to Simon, who almost had no chance to even look around.

"Show me what you found!"

Then she noticed that the sleeve of his sweater on his left shoulder was torn, bloody and stuck to his skin.

"Hey, you are bleeding. Why did you not say anything? Are you hurt?"- she asked him, now with more concern than excitement in her voice.

"It is nothing but a scratch. Do not worry about it." - he tried to divert her attention.

But Lara stepped closer to him to take a look at the wound. It did not seem very deep but it had to be dressed. Simon found all this unnecessary waste of time but I enjoyed her attention.

"It needs to be cleaned and dressed. I do not want it to get infected." - she said and took out a first aid kit from her bag. She went to the bathroom and made a towel wet. "Sit here, and show it to me." – she ordered pointing to a chair in front of her.

Simon took off the sweater and sat on the chair. Lara began to examine the wound with skilled movements. The bullet only grazed the man's arm, it was not a deep cut. She cleaned it with the towel, the bleeding had almost stopped. After putting some disinfection cream on her fingertips she smeared his injury. The cream did not feel good but Simon did not notice. He felt nothing but her touch on his skin. Her fingers almost burnt his skin as she was holding his arm with her the other hand. As she smoothed the plaster over the bandage she let her fingers just a bit longer on his skin than necessary.

"Here you go." - Lara stated while smiling at Simon.

The man did not take his eyes off her watching her every move. Now he looked deep into her eyes until Lara looked away nervously. She stood up and began to put together the contents of the kit.

"Thank you." - Simon said. He was still watching her feeling her embarrassment. Lara did not look directly back at him, she did not want that the man read her feelings from her eyes.

"You are welcome." – she said at last. "Now show me what you found." - the conversation shifted to safer waters.

"Oh yeah, I almost forgot." - Simon joked. He leaned back, reached into his jeans pocket and pulled out a small box. "You open it." – he offered it to her.

The metal box was lying on Lara's palm, it was flat and light. It did not appear to be bigger than five inches, she watched it in awe. Perhaps there was not even an inch on it, which was not covered with pretty elaborate carvings. She knew that these patterns did not convey any importance to them but she stared with admiration at this masterpiece. Running her fingers over it she almost looked transfigured. As if by touching it the spirit of the times would penetrate her, as if the box would tell her its secrets. Sitting back on the chair next to Simon she pulled a short-bladed knife out of the right boot. Carefully, to avoid any damage to the surface of the box, she pushed the knife at the intersection of the two plates and flipped the cover open. Contrary to the outside, the inside of the box was completely empty. The only thing that Lara got her eyes on was a sentence carved into the inside of the lid in Gaelic again. At this moment she knew they found what they were searching for. Reading the sentence several times there was first surprise on her face then the expression of total confusion appeared. Simon tried to read from her face but it was almost impossible. He started to become impatient as he was also very curious what was inside the box.

"What do you see?" - he asked her hopelessly. "Do not make me beg each time we find something."

"I am sorry." - Lara replied absently. "It says: Try your luck under the kilt of the old man."

Simon looked at her at least as surprise as Lara the first time. It was hard to do anything with this sentence, even though the words carried a meaning.

"And this time you are sure of the translation?" – Simon asked the same question that was running on Lara's mind as well.

But no matter how many times she read it, she still concluded that there was nothing to misunderstand. She got up and started to walk up and down the room as usual, at least as much as the tight place allowed. It was getting late, rain started to patter on the windowsill. Lara watched the ceiling, Simon watched her as she passed by. The words she read in the box were spinning in her head, they appeared in every combination in front of her eyes. What was the question to ask herself? She tried to organize what she knew so far. Scotland, an old man, kilt ... a place where they should go. Simon then suddenly laughed out loud.

"What is so funny?" - Lara asked. She did not understand this sudden change.

"I am sorry but I can already see you chasing old guys in kilts." – Simon blurted out and he could not stop laughing.

"Very funny." - Lara grimaced back, visibly annoyed. "You are not really a big help. If you had enough, could you maybe try to be serious for a change?"

"All right, all right. Do you not think that you are too serious?" – he wanted to tease her a bit further. "Let me see what I find on the Internet. Give me a laptop." – he asked the woman. Once started the machine he continued to tease her even more. "You can still learn something from me, it is like magic. I simply type in all words that we need at the same time and push search here on the top." – he grinned at her.

Lara just wanted to retort on his teasing when something on the screen caught her eyes looking over his shoulders.

"Well, of course ... you are a genius." - she said and instinctively pushed a light kiss on Simon's face, as she leaned over his shoulder.

"I do not know what I did, but if you tell me, I do it again." – he continued joking.

"You just found the solution."' - Lara pointed to the screen. Indeed there were all three words standing together on the screen, and moreover, they made perfect sense. "These words show clearly to one place, and this is where we need to go. Isle of Skye."

On Isle of Skye there were two very famous natural formations, a large rock called Old Man of Storr and a waterfall, which fell directly into the see over a rock called Kilt Rock. This time there was nothing allegorical hidden in the message. Lara was convinced that the retreat had to be somewhere beneath the waterfall. It was incredible that the phrase was so clear and yet she did not think of the solution immediately. Sometimes things were the most difficult when they were very easy to decipher.

"Let's go right now!" – she urged Simon.

Simon did not have to think twice. He threw the equipment in the bag and was ready to go. They left enough money on the bed for the night and slipped out of the house. Nobody heard the sound of the car as they drove off to the west in the dark.

Fortunately the island was connected to the mainland, there was no need to mess around with a ferry. The Skye Bridge was passed at a good pace but the situation on the island had changed significantly. The roads were winding so narrowly that often only one car could fit on them. Lara did not want to risk bumping into someone, therefore she greatly reduced the speed. A whole hour passed before they came to this amazing natural formation. The small river crashed into the depths below from about two hundred feet height, the cliffs looked almost vertically to the sky. The early morning hours, when Simon and Lara got there, not a soul was around. The engine of the Aston Martin stopped, Lara got out and then went to the trunk. Stepping out to the cold air creeps ran over her arm, the rain was gently drizzling. They both packed the most necessary things in a small backpack, a lot of rope, flashlights, binoculars, a few tools, and finally two guns. Wearing the climbing equipment they fixed the ends of the ropes. With a headset in the ear they were standing at the edge of the steep cliff, the sound of the waves could only be heard as they crashed against the rocks beneath them. Lara thought that it would be more prudent to await the dawn, they would not see anything in the darkness. But she did not want to risk someone to perceive them, and start asking questions.

"Are you ready?" – Lara asked Simon.

"Ladies first." - he offered the possibility.

Lara turned around and began to descend into the darkness. Simon followed not far behind. Slowly they descended, kicking themselves away from the wall again and again. Lara turned on the led light that she usually wore on herself. The task was more than a challenging, the rocks almost melted together in the dark, wet and glistening from the water. Strong focus was needed to see something. Mostly they were using their hands. Even if there was a pair of binoculars in Lara's bag, which could be used in night mode, it was not much of use as they were hanging so close to the wall that they could not use it for anything. Almost half of the distance was accomplished when Lara saw a break in the cliff. She manoeuvred closer to investigate it. It proved to be very narrow but no other imperfection was to be seen in the solid wall.

"Get over here. I think I found something. "- Simon heard her voice in his ear.

"How do we get through here?" – he asked after he saw the crack with his own eyes. "Are you sure this is it?"

"Did you see anything else?" - the woman asked back already trying to push herself through the hole. It was not an easy task, she hardly fit through it. Approximately six feet must be proceeded under such circumstances, then the passage began to widen. "Follow me. It is leading somewhere" – she said to him and waited until he caught up with her. Simon had even more difficulty to get through but finally he succeeded. After untying the end of the ropes from themselves they fixed them to the rocks. The corridor was slowly widening so much that they could comfortably walk through. The walls appeared to be natural, it was not a man-shaped entrance. The stones were wet and glistening in the lights. After a short meander suddenly an incredible sight had met their eyes. The thin tunnel ended up in a huge cave almost.

"This is unbelievable." - Lara whispered in awe. She could not tell where light came from but it was not completely dark in the cave, a strange glow filled it up. For several minutes she was just staring at the formation, which was mostly formed by nature. Simon went inside but Lara knew she had to look around from there otherwise she would never find the way to proceed. Pulling out her binoculars she looked around. There was a clear sign of a human hand, barely visibly a small path led up to the nearly vertical rock on the opposite side, which looked like possible to climb on. Lara was more and more certain that this was what they were looking for, finally, with the binoculars in the hand she spotted an opening in the wall at the top of the wall. She followed Simon, who was already halfway down toward the centre of the cave.

"I think we need to get up there." - she handed the binoculars to Simon so that he could see it too, what she meant.

Simon looked up to the ledge about sixty feet above them.

"I hope you like rock climbing because you will need it now. Unless you want to wait here." - Lara threw a smile. Apparently she enjoyed such challenges. Simon, of course, had already climbed walls but mostly in the gym, but he did not have the intention to tell it to her.

"Let's see, who gets up there faster" – Lara said with challenge in her voice.

Simon looked back at her, he almost did not believe how much energy she had. This constant competitive spirit was typical of her, he did not expect anything else from Lara. They both started to climb. Simon found a good starting point from which he could immediately jump relatively high. He tried to take advantage of his physical strength to get in front of her. He could easily pull up at the next protruding ledge. Already in the beginning he had a better position than Lara. The woman, however was much lighter, she was moving on the wall like a cat. As if gravity had no influenced on her she was easily jumping from one stone to the next. She saw that Simon was in front of her, quickly looked around, where she could cut in on him. They were climbing head-to-head for a while, when Simon gained advance on her again towards the end with a good-directed jump. Lara then noticed a projection off the cliff just below the top. If she managed to get up there with one jump, she would beat the man. Looking up she prepared herself, put all her strength to her right foot. It was a very dangerous thing to do but she did not think twice about it. She grabbed the rim with her hands, a smile slowly spread across her face. _Now I got you_ - she thought. But in the last moment she was unable to keep herself and her hand slipped off the edge. She knew that she would inevitably fall. At that moment a strong hand reached out, Simon was holding her wrist with one hand while with the other hand he was hanging from the rock. Lara was hanging there at the nearly sixty feet height, completely vulnerable. He summoned all his strength to be able to keep themselves. Simon looked down at the woman, who knew that she must stay still not to further complicate the situation. There was not any sign of fear to be seen in her eyes, she completely trusted him. Simon was not so sure about himself but finally took a deep breath and with his last strength he pulled up Lara as much that she was able to catch the edge. From there the woman reached the top of the ledge in a few seconds and immediately grabbed Simon's arm to help him climb up. Lying on the back they were both breathing heavily feeling the pain in their arms.

"Do not do this again." – he pleaded her gasping. "I do not think I manage this once more."

"Thanks. This was a bit close." - she laughed. There was still too much adrenaline rushing through her veins.

"A bit too close for my taste." - Simon corrected her.

"Can we go on?" – said asked him after a few minutes rest.

"If you promise to be more cautious." – he answered looking at her.

"What would be the fun then?" – Lara looked back with her sweetest smile on the face.

Simon could only meekly shake his head as he followed the woman into the dark passage in front of them smiling.


	13. Chapter 13

As they went deeper inside, the darkness became almost impassable. Only the trail of the flashlights broke the blackness. This corridor was already noticeably created by human hands, it was winding deep inside through the solid rocks. They were passing very slowly. Lara examined every corner expecting traps everywhere but the way was still safe. The walls stretched higher and higher, the ceiling disappeared in the darkness. The entire corridor widened, and eventually was closed by a polished wall in front of them.

"Dead end." - Simon said dejectedly.

"I do not think so." - Lara said, as she went closer to examine the rocks.

Interestingly it completely blended into the environment, there was not any imperfection, button to push or lever to pull on it. Yet she was sure that this was the way to go. With the binoculars in her hand Lara was backing away from the wall. The night vision turned on she began to scan the wall. Around the barrier she had not noticed anything that would have helped. But as she moved her eyes upwards, she saw something strange high above their heads. A ledge was hidden about twenty feet above them in the darkness. From where she was standing she could not make out more but it was their only option.

"This must be some kind of a mechanism. We must try to open it." – she explained to him.

"You mean this is a door?"

"Yes. Because down here nothing alludes to it that we could open it, we should get up there." – she said pointing toward the ledge.

Lara took a torch and then threw it up the ledge to see a bit more. They only had to manage to get a rope up there somehow as climbing the wall seemed completely impossible. Simon put a hook at the end of the rope but there was nothing above where it could have hung. He tried several times but he had no luck with it.

"There is nothing up there where it could get caught." – he said with resignation.

"That is impossible." - Lara did not want to give up so easily.

She took the rope from him and tried from another angle. She just started to give up the whole thing when suddenly the rope hitched. After pulling on it a few times she decided that it was strong enough to carry her weight. She climbed up the wall easily. Quickly she looked around. On both sides of the projection there was a wheel that could be used to open up the gate.

"I think you should come up here." - she shouted down to Simon.

After a few minutes the man was standing next to her watching the wheels.

"Good that I brought you with me" - Lara joked. "Else I would be in a big trouble now."

The two wheels were placed at a distance from each other, it was impossible for one person to move both at the same time.

"If this is the only reason why you are happy about this." - he tried to tease her but Lara did not take note of it. She was too busy with a new discovery.

They went to the wheels and began to turn them but nothing happened. There was not even a squeak to be heard.

"What is happening now? Why is nothing working for the first time?" – Simon started to complain.

"Patience." - Lara assured him. "This is not supposed to be anything easy."

She examined the wheel with the flashlight, the gears did not touch each other. Something was missing from the device, which prevented it from functioning. It had to be hidden somewhere there. She looked around on the ledge but there was not a single place where anything could have been concealed. But behind them the offset strongly narrowed, it was worth consideration. The ceiling sloped at an angle of approximately thirty degrees, after a few steps it was impossible to proceed on feet. Lara got down to her knees and crawled as far as she could. At the end of the tunnel there was only a gap of ten inches between the floor and the ceiling. The woman directed the lamp in there and saw what she wanted. Two small cogs were lying at the end of the opening.

"I think I found the missing pieces. I just have to get them out of there somehow." – she said to Simon who was standing behind her.

"Let me go there, I will try." - he offered.

"I do not think you would have better chances. My arm is thinner." - Lara contradicted.

She lay on her back and began to crawl inside. Her head still just fit in the hole but she did not get much further. She held out her arm the best she could while trying to push in her shoulder as far as possible. While her face squeezed against the hard surface of the rock, she pushed herself even further. Lara felt that the tip of her finger was tapping the gear. She was moving very cautiously not to push them even further away by the effort. Finally she reached out and grabbed the cogs.

"Good job." – Simon praised her when she again stood in front of him with the loot.

The man raised his hand to Lara's face and gently wiped away the dust with his fingers where the stones scratched her skin a bit.

"Let's get this done first." – Lara interrupted the evolving intimate atmosphere.

Putting the missing pieces in their places they re-spun the wheels. This time they clearly heard something that moved beneath them, and the gate began to rise. Simon fixed the mechanism to prevent it from closing again while they were inside. After descending the rope they crossed the gate. A short flight of stairs led up into a quite perfect round room. In the middle there was a platform, on which the amulet was shining.

So it does exist." - Simon stared at it with admiration. A giant ruby appeared in front of his eyes. Instinctively he started to walk towards the platform but Lara held him back.

"Wait. I better look around first if there are any hidden traps. You stay here till then, this is my business."

The room was not very large, about thirty feet in diameter. However, the ceiling stretched high and some light emanated through some small cracks. Lara thought that it must be already the surface, in the meantime the sun rose. The thought was unbelievable that the treasure lay so close to the outside world, and yet so far no one had discovered it. She had not yet approached the pillar, walked around the walls of the room. Oddly, several rounds of tiny holes covered the wall all around. Lara ran her fingers over the holes while trying to put together the picture. This was the only thing she could notice, no other abnormalities were to be seen neither on the floor nor the walls nor the ceiling. The medallion was lying on a pyramid-shaped platform, about five feet high. The gaps in the wall went up about seven feet high and started about two feet above the floor. Once again she walked around the room before she approached the amulet.

"What do you see?" – Simon asked, who was still standing at the top of the stairs.

"I think something will happen if we remove the medallion. My best guess is that arrows will shoot out of those holes at us. They are positioned in a way that they cannot be avoided neither from the ground nor if you climb up onto the platform." - Lara was thinking loud while gauging the odds.

"So what do we do?"

"We do not do anything. I will."

"And what would this be?" - Simon asked. He thought Lara had an idea again how to turn off the trap.

"Of course I will move the locket and trigger the trap." - the woman said as calm as if she was reading a shopping list.

"This is crazy! You just said that it is impossible to avoid the arrows. "- Simon exclaimed anxiously.

"I will be faster."

"How can you know in advance? I will not let you do this." - Simon was now almost yelling at her to bring her back to senses.

"Hey, I do not need your permission!" – Lara raised her voice. She did not like it if someone tried to control her. "If you have a better idea, then I am happy to listen. But I certainly do not give up when we are so close." Simon was silent. "I thought so." - she looked at him. "Believe me, this is not the first time I do such a thing. Everything will be fine." – she tried to reassure Simon.

Lara went to the platform and climbed to the top, where she had just enough space that she could stand on two feet. In front of her lay the ruby. Her back was to Simon, who could not seen her face. Few seconds elapsed, Lara cleared her mind, had another thought about what exactly she wanted to do. Concentrating on the task ahead she closed her eyes. Simon was hiding at the stairs, trying to remain completely silent not to disturb her. There was a worried expression on his face. Lara counted down from three, then she reached down and picked up the amulet holding it firmly in her hand. Once she moved it, she instantly heard a click as the arrows were released. Not thinking too much, she made a back-flip from the platform. Time seemed to have stopped, it was as if she was seeing everything in slow motion. In the corner of her eyes she saw many sharp arrows flying towards her from all directions. Then, after seemingly endless seconds she landed in front of the pillar. Her brain was waiting for the pain as the darts stroke her but nothing happened. She stood there holding the medallion, the arrowheads were covering the floor all around the platform. At this point a second click from the wall hit her ears. But before she could do anything, Simon dragged her to the ground burying her body protectively under his. Above their heads a second series of arrows sped away, which would certainly have pierced Lara.

"How many times do I have to thank you today?" – she asked Simon with a smile, as he rose a bit.

"I also do not know what you would do without me. How have you survived so long?" – he joked with her though there was rather worry in his eyes. The situation began to resemble ghostly to the scene in the gym the other day. Lara secretly had been expecting that Simon would draw closer to her but this time he resisted the temptation. He got up and pulled Lara to her feet as well. The woman dusted herself off highly surprised what had come upon Simon. This was now the umpteenth time, when they were so close to each other and he did not even try anything.

"Let's get out of here." – Lara said putting the gem in her backpack.

The return trip was much easier, they did not have to puzzle where the way went on, did not have to open the gate. They squeezed themselves through the narrow entrance, and then climbed up the rope to the car park, where they started from a few hours ago. Meanwhile the sun rose, the air was pleasant after the muggy cave. The tourists looked wide-eyed as they climbed out of the ravine but they did not wait till anyone started to ask questions. Accompanied by the wondering eyes they jumped into the car and drove away.


	14. Chapter 14

Lara was driving back as fast as she could. After a while though she was overcome by endless fatigue. As her adrenaline level was falling, she began to feel more and more exhausted. It was as though she would have been completely drained of energy. She felt that she could not continue to drive any minute longer. Now that they had obtained the stone, she felt a strange emptiness within, as if there had been no more objectives. She did not know what she would do with the locket now, she did not know what she would do next. But she did not want to think about this now, she really terribly needed a rest. Without a word she turned to an access road, which led to an inn. The Aston Martin had stopped behind the building.

"I need to get some sleep, I do not think that I could drive to London now." - she said to Simon getting out of the car. Simon followed her in silence. He was not at all against a break. Slowly he felt like being in a completely different time zone that they were awake at night and slept only a few hours during the day. At least in the meantime he did not have to think about it that the adventure was over and their ways would most probably separate.

The man let Lara into the room, and then he entered. The room was furnished the usual way, a double bed, two chairs, a small bathroom. Lara did not want anything but a hot shower. She felt tired and dirty. Immediately she went to the bathroom shutting the door behind her. Simon heard outside that the water started to run in the shower. Lara raised her face against the water-jet, and just let the water run down on her body. She felt like renewed, her mind was clearing, the tension resolved in her muscles. After drying herself she wrapped a towel around her body and went back to the room. As she saw Simon with the medallion in his hand, she stopped and leaned against the door frame. She did not really understand why but some sort of anger overwhelmed her.

"What are your plans now that we have found what we were looking for?" - Simon heard the woman suddenly. Her voice sounded somewhat brusquely.

"What do you mean?" – he looked up with the glittering gem in his hand.

"Do not tell me you made no thoughts about this. You must have a reason to be in this. "- she still could not escape the thought that Simon evaded her and wanted to get the medallion for himself. It was time to find out what was going on.

"I do not understand what you mean. I was just as interested in solving the puzzle as you were." - Simon did not understand what suddenly came upon Lara. She sounded threatening.

"I am sure that your government is keen on getting something like this. Can you imagine the impact on politics if this thing really works? Is this why they sent you after me?" – she approached the man while making herself more and more angry.

"No one sent me after you. Why are you telling me this now? Did I do something wrong?" - Simon asked with a surprised expression on his face.

"You tell me."

"I do not know what your problem is but I do not like it." - now he began to become angry as well.

"Then tell me why you are here!" - Lara snarled at him with an expression on her face, which Simon had never seen before. Simon did not say anything. "I want to know" - she pushed the matter further. Simon slowly turned away from her and returned the ruby in the woman's bag. This movement made Lara even angrier that the man simply showed his back and completely ignored her. To get his attention she wanted to grab his shoulder but Simon expected this and caught her hand in the air. He turned back towards her while holding her wrist firmly. Rigidly staring at each other Lara's eyes narrowed. All their nerves tensed in this silent battle. Simon felt how her fist clenched as she tried to pull her hand away but he held her tight.

"If you want to know so much, I am here because I have never met such an amazing woman like you." - Simon finally answered almost in a whisper. His voice was rough, angry, that she forced him to admit this, and at the same time as wild as his emotions. Lara was completely surprised by his confession, only gazed at him. The air was standing still, only their accelerated breaths could be heard. Simon could not bear the tension anymore, pulled her closer and kissed her passionately. Lara gave up all resistance, put all her anger, frustration and desire into the kiss. Simon wanted her ever since he saw her at the party. Since then this feeling only strengthened in him as he got to know her better. She represented everything that had ever attracted him to a woman, she was strong, smart, independent and beautiful. Now that he held her in his arms, he could not get enough of her, wanted to feel her, to taste her, to breathe her in. Lara pulled his shirt open, the little buttons were flying all over the room, and then pushed it down his shoulders. Her hands ran over his chest, and then wrapped around his neck, while they only broke the kiss to take a breath. Backing a few steps Simon pushed Lara onto the bed. He leaned over her holding his weight on one arms, while the other caressed her running up on her thigh. Lara pulled him in again kissing him fiercely. Simon would have never thought that she could be so demanding and passionate. Her fingers scratched over the man's back, then brushed through his hair. She felt the man's weight against her hip, as his body clung to hers. Tipping her head back she closed her eyes. Simon kissed his way down her neck, sometimes biting into the soft skin, causing voluptuously sighs coming from her. Pushing the towel off from her he traced the shape of her body with his lips, circling his tongue around her navel. As he kissed her mouth again he felt her lithe body under his, his chest touched her bare skin, which aroused him even more. His hand explored every inch of the woman's body. The scent that filled everything around her drove him crazy. He knew that he should have given her more time, but he wanted everything and immediately. He looked into her brown eyes shining with passion and saw his own desire reflected in them. They both wanted the same and he could not wait any longer. Simon had never felt such overwhelming pleasure as when they became one. Lara arched her body into him as the fulfilment came closer. She never felt so close to anyone before. Together they climbed unimaginable heights before both of them fell back to the bed exhausted.

"That is what I call relaxation." - Lara laughed while the pleasant tiredness ran through her that she had not felt for a very long time.

Simon turned to her and stroked her cheek with his finger.

"You are incredible." - he said, smiling. Lara kissed him in answer. Not much later, they fell asleep side by side.

A little later, Lara opened her eyes, lying next to Simon. For the first time in a long while she felt relaxed and happy. Like on a desert island where no one and nothing else mattered. She watched the man as he slept until Simon woke up as well. He looked back at her, half asleep, smiling.

"What are you thinking about?" - he asked her.

"That I do not want to leave." - the woman replied. In the meantime she realised that she really meant it.

"That makes things easier because I do not let you go anyway." – said Simon with a grin on his face pulling her closer.

"Good to know." - Lara whispered while kissing him.

"I wanted you from the first second I saw you at the party." - he admitted, while his fingers caressed her shoulders, going down on her arms.

"So it was not true that you only wanted to help me with that cream." - Lara joked with him.

"Touché." - Simon laughed. "But let me check if it was really helping you."

His fingers stroked the little scratches and spots, which still could be seen on the woman's body. First on the shoulder, down to her flat belly where the bruise was still visible. Lara was watching him with joy, then stopped his hand on her hip. Simon looked up, Lara needed nothing to say. This time they did not rush, enjoying every inch of each other, every second they spent together. The wild desire gave its place over to long voluptuous pleasure.

When Simon opened his eyes hours could have passed by, it was completely dark outside. Lara lay beside her on the stomach, facing the opposite direction. He just watched for a while, how fine and silky her skin was. He did not want to wake her. He knew that sooner or later they must leave this room but he was not yet ready to do so. The night was still long and he wanted to enjoy every minute of it. Simon almost could not even believe that Lara was lying beside him, that not too long ago he took possession of the warmth of her body like never of anyone else's before. He did not know what will happen later, but did not want to think about it now. Only that moment counted.

As Lara moved a stray lock of hair fell into her face. Simon reached over, and gently stroked it behind her ear. Barely perceptibly he ran his fingers over her neck. Suddenly something strange caught his attention. He noticed a small cut under her hairline, which he never realised before. It felt somehow weird. Just at the moment he leaned over to take a closer look, a huge crash broke the silence. The windows broke, pieces of broken glass were flying everywhere, and two men jumped into the room pointing guns on them. Lara immediately woke up, but they could do nothing. Completely vulnerable they were waiting to see what happens. For a seemingly endless minute nobody moved but the wind blew the curtains through the open window. The men wore masks, but as Lara looked in their eyes, she was sure that one was the same who shot Lord Crestley. The murderer was still pointing a gun at them, while the other began to search through the table. In such a situation it had not been a large effort to keep the couple at bay, they were caught in the most delicate situation possible. Lara felt that the masked man was staring at her as the thin bed-sheet outlined the silhouette of her naked body. The other had found the woman's bagpack, after a quick glance into it he nodded. They both backed away towards the window, and then just as fast as they appeared, they disappeared again taking Lara's bag with them, with the medallion in it.

"Damn it." - Lara leapt out of bed and put on Simon's shirt that was lying on the floor where they left it. But she could do nothing, the enemies disappeared into the darkness. "How the hell did they find us again?" - she was furious. She could not believe that they lost the stone after all they went through for it.

"I think I know the answer." - Simon said. Lara looked at him inquiringly. "I just found something on you before they broke in. I think they planted a tracer under your skin when they shot you with the bike. That is why they never really tried to follow us or attack us. They always knew where we were. This is why they did not kill you after all. They just wanted you to find the amulet and then steal it from us." Lara looked confused. "The scar is under your hairline on the left side."

She run her finger over her neck and felt it.

"You need to cut it out. I cannot believe I did not realise it."

"It is not your fault. You could not have thought of this. Give me your knife." Lara reached down to her boots lying on the floor and took out her pocket knife. Simon put on his jeans and left the room. Within five minutes he was back.

"I had to disinfect it." he explained to her. Lara turned around and moved her hair away from her neck. Not wanting to hurt her more than necessary Simon acted quickly. Fortunately the tracer was not really deep, he only had to scratch her skin to get it out. A thin line of blood run down on her neck, he dried it up with a towel. Then he put a patch on the cut.

"Done, better than new."

Lara was furious, immediately wanted to throw away the transmitter, but then she changed her mind. It may even be good for something. Let them think that they had not yet discovered it. She had not given up on finding the medallion, but at the moment she had no idea where to begin. In the meantime it could be anywhere. Looking desperate she sank down on a chair. Suddenly Simon remembered something.

"I think there's a pretty good chance that we can track them."

"What do you mean?" - looked up Lara at him with little hope in her eyes.

"Tell me your PDA was in your bag."

"This does not make me feel better in any way." - she did not understand first what he meant.

"Remember how I found you after the bike accident?" - Simon looked at her confidently.

"Right, the tracer! Is it still in my PDA?" Lara got more and more excited. This would be a real chance, assuming they did not just throw away her bag on the first corner.

"I never got it out, so it must be. All we need now is a tracker. "

Lara immediately wanted to start their journey, but Simon convinced her that there would be no point. Till the morning there was no chance to get a tracker from anywhere, and until then it would be superfluous to go in one direction, which may be completely wrong. Lara was impatient and nervous, but finally agreed that Simon was right. He did not really know how to behave with her in this situation. He wanted to comfort her, but was not sure that Lara would not misunderstand it. Somehow he had to try to get her to sleep, the next morning she would need the energy. He stepped up and knelt in front of the chair on which she was sitting.

"Try to sleep a bit, you'll need it. Tomorrow we go after them. "

"Now you are seriously telling me that I should sleep? Do you think I could do this? – she was nervous, her voice was harsher then she originally wanted it to be. Lara closed her eyes and took a deep breath. "I am sorry. I do not want to take it out on you." – she apologised.

"It is okay, I understand." – he tried to cheer her up a bit but it was quite an impossible undertaking. "Do not give up now, you are better than they. Come to bed." – he took her hand and pulled her towards the bed. Lara finally gave in and followed him. Simon lay on his side and Lara snuggled against him. He put his arm around her and held her close without saying anything.


	15. Chapter 15

At nine in the morning the car was already standing in front of a special technical shop in Glasgow. Fortunately the majority of their equipment was still there, only Lara's backpack was gone with all her credit cards in it. They had to find a way to get a tracer for a short period of time without buying it. They had very limited cash that she wanted to keep for filling up the car.

"How do we get the tracker like this?" - Simon asked her.

"Trust me. I will find out where these bastards are. We do not necessarily need to keep the equipment if we are lucky." – Lara said while watching the store from the outside. It had only one small showroom that was filled with all kinds of strange things. To her relief there were two young guys behind the counter. With a quick move she took off the sweater she had worn and put on a tight top, which gave her a more than daring cleavage. She stroked along her the side and arranged the clothes. Simon watched her obviously enjoying himself.

"You just stay here and wait for me." – she said to him.

She got out of the car and went into the shop, while her hips rocked even more seductively than usual. Simon watched her leaning on the counter.

"Could someone help me out please?" – she asked in a droning voice.

One guy looked up and Lara saw it in his face right away that she would get from him what she wanted. He rushed over to her.

"What can I do for you?"

"I have a small problem and I hoped you could help me to solve it." - Lara said while twinning a lock of hair around her finger.

"I would be…really...happy to help" – the guy swallowed nervously.

"Someone stole something important from me and I want to find it. Would you be able to track this tracer code down for me? It would save me a lot of trouble." - she smiled and leaned lower to allow a better view. She could see that the eyes of the young guy were long not on her face anymore. She pushed a small piece of paper on the counter with the code. The young man raised his head after Lara coughed lightly.

"I try it for you immediately." – he said at last and took out a tracking device from the cabinet behind him. He typed in the code and a few seconds later showed the results to the woman. The little sign was flashing in one place and did not move anywhere for several minutes. Lara wrote down the coordinates.

"Thanks." – she returned the equipment to the guy, leaned over to him and pressed a kiss on his cheek. The young man was speechless with surprise, he was still standing there when Lara got into the car.

"You are wicked, but it suits you." - Simon grinned.

"What are you talking about? At least he has a story to tell his friends for the next days." - she smiled back at him.

"I am glad to see you smile again. This means that there is good news?"

"I do not know how good or bad. In any case the signal is not moving, which means that either they threw away the bag, and then that was it, or the medallion is there. I want to find them and they will regret to have crossed my ways."

"Tell me the coordinates." - Simon entered them into the GPS, which pointed to an address in the city of London.

"Ready to go home?" - Lara asked and stepped on the gas before Simon could answer.

Lara could not wait to arrive in London. She was very impatient, annoyed that they were surprised by their opponents, and that it was so easy for them to obtain the medallion from her. This address was their only chance, if it proved to be a dead end, then the others won. Simon tried to find out as much as possible about address before they reached it.

"It is a large office building, a lot of companies lease space in it. How do we know where to look? If this is the right address at all." – he said with the laptop on his lap.

"We have no choice, so try to look around. Go onto the companies' websites, maybe you find something." - Lara proposed while she flashed left and right on the highway, impatiently overtaking the other cars. It was increasingly difficult for Simon to cope with the long list as the car was swinging from one side to the other. In this case the time passed even slower than usually but then they eventually arrived at the address. Lara stopped a little further up on the roadside and they watched the people coming in and out at the front gate. Simon has still not reached the end of the list but something caught his eyes on one of the companies' website.

"I think you should look at this." - Lara turned to him and looked at the screen.

"Look at you, who do we meet again and again." - the same face looked back at them from the screen, which they had seen on the first day on the balcony and the same eyes behind the guns pointed on them a few hours ago.

"I'm going to look around a bit. You stay here, alone I am not so suspicious." – he told her.

Simon got out and walked towards the building. In the lobby there was the usual list on the wall with all the companies located there. Simon made a mental note that the one they were looking for was in the twelfth floor. Trying to find out a bit more he walked over to the receptionist and asked how long the office in question was open that day. Not seeing anything interesting after this he walked back to Lara.

"The offices are usually open till about five o'clock Fridays. However the lobby is full with cameras, it will not be easy to get in."

"Who said anything about the front door?" - Simon was sure that Lara had something dangerous on her mind again. "We will wait until everyone goes home, I do not think it would take long yet."

"What is your plan?" - the man asked.

"We simply find the backdoor. If I remember well, then you are good with turning off alarm systems." – she said smiling at him.

"Slowly I cannot decide if you enjoy teasing me more or breaking in." - Simon smiled back at her.

"I do not answer this question." – she teased him even further.

"Too bad you cannot read my mind right now." - he grinned.

"Maybe it is better." - she looked up at the building in front of them. Slowly the lights went out in the offices. "We do not have to wait long anymore."

"Do you think we will be so lucky and the amulet is really here?"

"I think there is a good chance. It cannot be a coincidence that this guy has an office right here. This must be their cover."

"I am just afraid that this will not be as easy as it appears now."

"They do not know that we are here, that we know who they are and where they hide. I threw the tracer on a truck going in the opposite direction in Glasgow still. I hope they think we are still somewhere in the north."

"I hope you are right."

The time passed slowly, the lights went out in the offices. Being Friday people did not want to stay in the office long before the weekend.

"I think we can go." - Simon said. Lara went to the trunk and took out the usual equipment, handed over the headset to Simon. They looked around, seeing nothing suspicious they went behind the building to find the backdoor. In the small alley on the backside there were several big trash containers standing. Suddenly Lara spotted something next to one of them. Her backpack was lying on the ground, someone hastily threw it away. She quickly picked it up happy to see that most of her stuff was still in there. Having back her beloved PDA was already a small success.

"Only you can be so lucky that they threw away the bag here and not somewhere in the middle of the highway." - Simon was surprised.

"Sometimes we need a little luck in life."

"Somehow it seems to me that you are always lucky. For example, you met me." - Simon joked.

"It will be even better if you tell me that you can open this door without police cars appearing here within five minutes."

"I will do what I can." - Simon replied. He took the small gadget from his bag and connected it to the alarm system. The display came to life and the little green numbers on it were spinning again with incredible speed. A few minutes later the code appeared and the door opened.

"Be careful in there please." - Simon stopped Lara for a moment.

"I know you will see after me as usual." - Lara replied and kissed him lightly before entering.

Lara stayed close to the wall, peeking out on the corner looking for cameras. On the opposite wall she had seen one, which was scanning the corridor that had an entrance on both ends. One led to the garage and the other in the stairwell. Lara waited until the camera turned to the opposite direction and began to run toward the door. They had to act fast, there were only a few seconds to reach the entrance, but then they found themselves in the staircase. Simon looked up in the middle, the stairs appeared to be almost endless leading upward.

"Then up we go to the twelfth floor. But do not tell me that you want to compete again." - he looked at her questioningly.

"No, I do not want to beat you in everything." - she looked back vixenly.

A few minutes later, Simon peeked through the slightly opened door on the twelfth floor that lead to the offices. He saw no movement, there was almost perfect silence. The only sound he heard was the humming of a photocopier.

"It seems to be clear. The office should be at the end of the corridor on the right side." - he whispered. "Ladies first." – he let her go.

Lara slipped out through the crack of the door and sneaked along the wall while watching the cameras. At one point she came to a halt when she nearly run into the field of vision of a camera but withdrew herself into a corner in time. She did not want the night guards to spot them on the monitors downstairs. She peeked out again and quickened her steps. Almost like a shadow she crept across the corridor, Simon followed not far behind. When Lara arrived at the office, she knelt down quickly and took out some thin tools. She inserted them in the lock and after a few skilled moves they heard the familiar click. _That was easy _- she thought. They found themselves in a kind of waiting room, where the secretary must have been sitting usually. Three doors lead from here on, each head of the company had his separate office. At least as far as this particular company actually existed at all. These doors have proved more challenging, security was not entrusted to the chance. The red light of the electronic security system was flashing at regular intervals.

"Let me take this on." - Simon came up against the door with his magic box again, on which the name was standing that they saw under the photo on the website.

They stepped into a very tastefully furnished office, the whole opposite wall was made of glass, which ensured a breathtaking view on the city of London. The floor was covered with thick carpets, the other walls all around were covered with bookshelves. In front of the window an antique desk was standing with a comfortable leather armchair.

"How do we find the locket here? Are you sure that it is here? "- Simon asked her.

"Of course I am not sure but this is our best guess. They must have brought it here on the first place if the bag was down there too."

"They could have brought it somewhere else again in the meantime." – Simon said.

"I love your attitude." - she looked at him incredulously. "Rather help me to look around. There must be a safe here somewhere."

The bookshelves were all filled up with books, there could have been thousands of them. It was impossible to try all of them whether there was a hiding place behind them. They could have spent the whole night with this. Of course, if there was no other choice Lara was ready for this too. But first she wanted to make sure it was really necessary. She run her eyes over the shelves, but did not see anything interesting. Lara sat down on the chair behind the desk and looked around from there. Somewhere there had to be a sign, she tried to imagine herself in his place. _Where would I put the safe if I was sitting here all day?_ – she asked herself the question. As she pondered, something caught her eyes on the ground. The thick carpet looked much more used on one place in front of the shelves than anywhere else, the fibers were more trampled off.

"I think the safe must be somewhere here." - she said to Simon, who was looking at the other end of the room. "Look at the carpet, the guy must often come here as it looks used up."

Simon began to examine the books in that part but could not find anything on the upper shelves. But as he went down, one book did not feel real. He pulled a bit more on it , heard a click, and suddenly a part of the bookcase opened, revealing a safe behind it.

"I hope your small machine can cope with this too." - Lara said while examining safe. It was a modern, electronic model.

"That is not what it is made for but we can try. After all the logic must be the same. But first I need to have access to the wires. This will take time."- Simon said as he took out the tools from his bag and set to work. The minutes passed, Lara was nervously wandering up and down the room. Sometimes she stopped and softly tapped with her foot on the carpet.

"You are not helping with this." - Simon looked up at her patiently as he stopped working for a second. Lara meekly put up her hands, walked over to the table, and again sat down on the chair. She tried to keep herself occupied somehow. Having nothing else to do she began to open the drawers. Most of them held nothing interesting but something caught her attention in the bottom one. A folder lay in it with Lord Crestley's name on it. Lara took it out with growing interest and dipped it. It was full with information about the old man's house, his agenda, his office and of course about the party itself. It seemed as though someone put a lot of energy into finding out all about him. However she found something at the bottom that even she had not expected. A printed copy of an email was held in her hand: _Get the map at all cost. Eliminate the old guy if it is necessary_. Lara first did not believe her eyes. She was in possession of hard evidence against the killer and there would not be only their statement against him. She put the folder in her bag.

"Finally." - she heard Simon's voice. "It was not easy, but I managed at the end."

"You are great." - Lara came up with excitement. They opened the safe, and there it was. The ruby was shining beautifully in Lara's hand even in that low light as she took it out. Satisfied they smiled at each other. But suddenly they heard a noise from outside, they only had time to hurriedly jump behind the door when it opened and the owner of the office stepped in. As he turned on the lights, he saw the safe open and looked around nervously. That was the time for Lara to take action. With a well-aimed kick she attacked the man but he was very fast, and almost miraculously swayed away from her attack. Still with the same move he struck towards Lara and sent her to the ground. Simon then stepped in and attacked him from the other side. They started a quick fist-fight. But the opponent was very good, Simon got hit several times. Lara got up, came up behind their attacker and swept his legs out from under him. The man fell in the back but incredibly fast he jumped to his feet again and kicked toward Lara. She ducked it, turned around and attacked from the side. But he grabbed his wrist and twisted her arm behind her back. Lara groaned in pain. Not having other options, she pushed her head back hitting him hard in the face as the guy was standing behind her. The man thus momentarily lost his balance. Simon then held down his arms from behind, giving Lara the opportunity to attack. This time the woman did not leave it to chance, picked up an antique vase from the table and knocked him out breaking it on his head.

"Oh, crap. This guy is just too damn good. What the hell is he doing here so late?" - Simon said breathing heavily. He pulled the guy over to the chair and they tied him down. Lara went outside, came back with a glass of water and poured it in the man's face. He started to cough coming back to his senses.

"You made a very big mistake by underestimating me" – Lara said to him. "And I think this belongs to me." - she held the amulet in front of the man's face. "I am sure that the MI6 will be very happy about a phone call where they can find you. I also make sure they get this folder so that you do not get away with killing a friend of my father." - Lara pushed the papers back into her bag. The man looked very angry trying to attack but he could not get to her.

"And this is for shooting at my car." - Lara said angrily sending him unconscious again with a kick in his face. "Shall we go?" – she asked Simon with a smile, who was idly watching the scene.

"Yes, I think we are done here."

After a short drive they arrived to Croft Manor once again. It was a strange feeling to be back to the place they started from just a few days ago. They both felt like it was ages ago they left from here. After stopping the car they got out, Winston already opened the door for them.

"I am glad you returned home safely, Lady Croft." - they were greeted by the butler. "It is also good to see you, Mr Hanningham."

"It is good to be home, Winston." – Lara greeted back.

"Do you need anything?" - the butler asked helpfully.

"No, thank you. I think we are both tired and want to retire to our rooms." – Lara said and looked eloquently at Simon. He followed her up the stairs, this time she did not mind his eyes on her. They turned right on the corridor and stopped in front of the door leading to the room where Simon slept before. Simon leaned against the doorframe and looked inquiringly at Lara.

"You know, this is one of the best rooms in the house." - the woman said smiling.

"So this means that there are better rooms?" - he countered with an innocent face.

"You will only find out if you try them."

"I do not know, I think I got used to this one quite much already." - Simon said quite seriously, though with a small smile in the corner of his mouth.

"As you wish." - Lara replied. She turned around and walked further down the corridor toward her room. She almost reached the door when she looked back at him with the amulet gleaming in her hand. "I just thought that I might convince you to a couple of things with this." - she said with a sexy smile on her face, which Simon could not resist.

"I think you will not even need that lousy thing for this." - Simon grinned and ran after her.

Winston could only hear some playful laughter down there until the heavy oak door closed behind them.

* * *

**So this story came to an end! I am quite happy I managed to finish my first story, I hope you had at least as much fun reading it than I had writing it. **

**Very special thanks to Lara Anne, Najel and Lady-Dragonfly89 for their continuous reviews. It really meant a lot to me to get your feedback! **

**And thanks to everyone else for reading. I am always happy to hear your opinions. I would also like to know what you think about a sequel with Simon! :) Currently I am working on a new crossover story, so I hope to see you all soon again!**


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